Mission & Justice

20/6/08

Antarctic whales are threatened by shrinking foraging zones and the need to swim hundreds of kilometres further to find food because of climate change, a WWF report says. Species such as the minke whale, favoured by Japanese hunters, face dramatic changes to their habitat in little over an individual whale’s lifespan, the report says. The report, Ice breaker: Pushing the Boundaries for Whales, has been released just ahead of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile next week. It summarises WWF research showing levels of global warming predicted over the next 40 years will lead to winter sea-ice coverage of the Southern Ocean declining by up to 30 per cent in some key areas.

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18/6/08

Japan executed three people yesterday, including serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, who murdered four little girls and ate some of their bodies. Miyazaki, 45, was hanged at a detention centre in Tokyo, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said. The fetishist burned the body of one four-year-old and left her bones on her parents’ doorstep. He wrote letters to the media and victims’ families, taunting police. Japanese newspapers said he ate part of the hand of one of his victims and drank her blood. Mr Hatoyama confirmed that two other people were executed, but did not give their names. “I ordered their executions because the cases were of indescribable cruelty,” he said.

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Josh Gordon; 15/6/08

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has denied Australia has backed away from a threat to take Japan to the International Court over whaling, declaring, “The legal option remains on the table”. He said Australia would first pursue its efforts through a campaign to reform the International Whaling Commission. If that failed, court action would be considered. “We’ve been really clear with the Japanese Government as we have with all nations on our opposition to commercial whaling,” Mr Garrett said. “We will consider legal options in due course.”

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Matthew Franklin; 13/6/08

Kevin Rudd has won Japanese support for his plan to kick-start nuclear disarmament through reform of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has flatly rejected his demand that Japanese whalers cease their annual hunt in the Southern Ocean, expressing hope the dispute would not undermine relations between the countries. Mr Rudd’s meeting and lunch with Mr Fukuda in Tokyo yesterday wound up his four-day visit to Japan before he left for Indonesia.

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Maria Hawthorne; 11/6/08

Australia is still considering taking Japan to court over its whaling in the Southern Ocean, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd denying he has abandoned the plan. On the eve of his first meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo, Mr Rudd told the Japan National Press Club that legal action was still an option if diplomacy failed to resolve the issue. New Zealand has dumped plans to take Japan to court after receiving legal advice that such a challenge was doomed. Last weekend, Mr Rudd also appeared to be signalling a softening on legal action, focusing on diplomatic efforts in the lead-up to this month’s International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile. But today he said there was no change in the Australian Government’s position.

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11/6/08

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s opposition to whaling is tested on his visit to Tokyo, a Japanese fleet has begun a hunt targeting 100 endangered sei whales. The whalers left this week for a three-month northern Pacific “research” cruise that plans to take 260 minke, sperm and bryde’s whales. Their departure was despite another crewman’s death on the factory ship Nisshin Maru, an Institute of Cetacean Research spokesman confirmed yesterday. It was the third death among the 130 crew within 18 months.

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Peter Afford, 7/6/08;

Japanese officials deny knowledge of whale meat imported from Iceland and Norway, the first international commercial trade since the early 1990s, although the exporter says it has already been landed and Greenpeace has identified the importer. Government approvals are necessary to import and sell whale meat, but Japanese Fisheries Agency and Customs officials said. yesterday no applications had been received. Earlier, however, the chief executive of the exporter, Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, told the Kyodo news agency a consignment of fin whale meat was undergoing routine customs inspection at a Japanese port. Resumption of the whale trade comes during preparations for another controversial annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission, opening on June 23 in Santiago, Chile, which will be attended by Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

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7/6/08

Japan has for the first time recognised the Ainu as anindigenous people, pledging to support the traditionally nature-worshipping community that has endured centuries of discrimination. It is a landmark move for Japan, which has prided itself onbeing ethnically homogeneous but where the Ainu have sharply lower incomes and educational levels. Parliament yesterday unanimously approved a resolution recognising the Ainu and calling for “immediate” support to the community. The move is primarily symbolic, although it is likely to lead to economic aid. The resolution comes ahead of next month’s summit of the Group of Eight rich nations on the northern island of Hokkaido, home to most of Japan’s 70,000 Ainu.

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Matthew Franklin; 5/6/08

The Japan Whaling Association believes data about to be released on the abundance of minke whales in the Antarctic will justify an increase in Japan’s annual whale kill to “tens of thousands”. Kevin Rudd has confirmed he will use his trip to Tokyo next week to increase diplomatic pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to stop whaling in Australian-controlled waters. Japan sends a whaling fleet to the Southern Ocean each summer, on the pretext of conducting scientific study. In reality the whales are killed for human consumption in restaurants. In December, Australia issued a demarche, or formal diplomatic protest, on behalf of numerous nations over Japan’s plans to cull about 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

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Russell Skelton; 28/5/08

Janet Holmes A’Court was emphatic: “This celebration of Emily’s painting stamps her as a great 20th-century painter.” Speaking at the blockbuster opening of the Emily Kame Kngwarreye exhibition in Tokyo last night, the patron of indigenous art declared that the debate about its value was also over.”This exhibition takes the life out of the debate about indigenous arts versus non-indigenous art,” she said. “Kngwarreye has been anointed as not just a great indigenous artist, which she is, but a great artist full stop.” Kngwarreye was “up there with Monet, Modigliani and all the rest”, Mrs Holmes a Court added.

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