Fiddling in Rome While Economy Slumps: Japan's Whaling Industry Continues Spending Spree

Despite the worst recession in a generation, Japanese government officials arrive in Rome this week to defend a multi-billion yen whaling programme that is reviled by the international community and unwanted by taxpayers at home.

Japan has been so severely stricken by the financial crisis that last week it was reported that the government was even cutting the cost of making silver sake cups presented to people on their 100th birthday. In February, the government announced a drop in exports of 45% on the same period last year, while key industries are cutting both costs and jobs and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dropped 3.3% in the last quarter of 2008 - twice the decline of US GDP. Yet, the Government of Japan is stubbornly refusing to consider cancelling the Southern Ocean whaling programme, which costs the taxpayer billions of yen.

"The Japanese government's whaling programme is a scientific sham and an economic disaster," said Greenpeace International Whales Campaigner, Sara Holden. "The future of the International Whaling Commission will be debated this week in Rome; the only viable future is one that protects whale populations, promotes non-lethal research and invests in real conservation of marine life. Japan needs to realise that another year of needlessly killing whales, endangering the pristine Antarctic environment and squandering its taxpayers' money is no basis for negotiation", Holden concluded.

In addition to the 1.2 billion yen annual taxpayer subsidy for the whaling programme, billions more are spent as part of the government's foreign aid budget to recruit countries to the International Whaling Commission. The Institute for Cetacean Research, which devises the so-called research programme, has outstanding loans to the government of 3.2 billion yen.