JAPAN: Debate on whaling heats up during Austalian foreign minister Stephen Smith's visit to Japan

Record ID: 464918

  • Title: JAPAN: Debate on whaling heats up during Austalian foreign minister Stephen Smith's visit to Japan
  • Date: 1st February 2008
  • Summary: (W2) TOKYO, JAPAN (JANUARY 31, 2008) (REUTERS) AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER STEPHEN SMITH AND JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER MASAHIKO KOMURA SHAKING HANDS TWO MINISTERS SIT DOWN FOR SIGNING CEREMONY AUSTRALIAN AND JAPANESE FLAGS SMITH AND KOMURA AT SIGNING TABLE TALKS BETWEEN SMITH AND KOMURA SMITH LISTENING KOMURA TALKING TALKS WITH AUSTRALIAN AND JAPANESE FLAGS IN BACKGROUND
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVA56396U8WA2X9QNT7VCBNBDQLG
  • Story Text: Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says the whaling controversy will not affect its partnership with Japan, while a Japanese fisheries official argues that the issue should not be dealt as a "black or white" issue.
    Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who was visiting his Japanese counterpart this week, said on Friday (February 1) that Tokyo and Sydney agreed that diplomacy between the two countries will not be affected by the whaling controversy.
    Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith arrived in Japan on Thursday (January 31) and had talks with his Japanese counterpart with Masahiko Komura after the two signed several bilateral partnership agreements.

    "Whilst we have a strong disagreement, this is not an issue, which in my view is or can or will adversely impact upon the fundamentals of our partnership with Japan," Smith told a news conference in Tokyo.
    As for a pair of activists - Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton Giles Lane - who boarded a Japanese harpoon boat last month without permission, Smith indicated the Australian government will take action in accordance with its law.

    "Anyone, anyone from wherever they come, who has conducted themselves in an unlawful or illegal way, is condemned by the Australian government. We do not condone illegal activity, nor we condone actions on the high seas which put at risk people's safety," Smith said.
    Separately, environmental activists and Japanese whaling officials faced off in Tokyo on Friday (February 1) in a debate over whaling, aimed at promoting a dialogue between the two parties.

    "Ongoing disagreement over the conservation of the world's whales has continued to escalate and has reached a crisis point that's negatively impacting relations between Japan and other nations. This conflict and a failure to resolve it threatens the future of the International Whaling Commission and the existing agreements that were put in place to protect whales. And it's clearly exacerbating tensions between various countries," said Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, which organised a two-day international conference on whaling in Tokyo that preceded Friday's debate.
    A Japanese whaling official defended whaling, adding that it should not be viewed as a "black or white" issue.

    "The mind-set needs to be changed. The mind-set in the past is that of trying to paint this controversy as either black or white. For example, it's always expressed that all whales are endangered or disappearing and Japan, Norway, Iceland and those whaling countries are trying to dissipate all the whales from the face of the ocean or the face of the earth. That's too simplistic. And that's not true, (not) a real picture," said Joji Morishita, the Japanese Fisheries Agency official in charge of whaling.
    Jun Hoshikawa, executive director of environmental group Greenpeace Japan, argued that the issue should be resolved among the Japanese themselves.

    "The whaling issue has had a very sad history of being framed the battle between Japan, Japanese people versus outsiders. But that's not true at all. And from now on, I think the battle should be fought within Japan - between us, the civil sector, the Japanese public and the Japanese government," Hoshikawa said.
    The debate at Japan's Foreign Correspondents' Club came a day after hardline anti-whaling activists announced on Thursday (January 31) they would return to harass Japan's whaling fleet for another three weeks after departing Antarctic waters to refuel in Australia.
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