Japanese Government Reviewing Funding For "Research" Whaling In Southern Ocean - ENS

[hatrack]

TOKYO, Japan, November 12, 2009 (ENS) - A review of Japanese government spending now underway could put an end to Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, according to Greenpeace, an environmental group that has campaigned against Japanese whaling for years.

The spending review committee established by Japan's new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has recommended that funding for the Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation be cancelled after 2010.

The OFCF is the largest financer of the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, which runs the Japanese whaling program. The whaling fleet usually sails for the Southern Ocean in mid-November, hunting whales for scientific research regardless of a moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. But the research program does not cover its costs, and Japan's new government is looking for ways to cut spending.

The spending review committee has recommended that the Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Fund have all of its funding revoked, except monies needed for loans in 2010. The OFCF claims it needs 70.4 billion yen (US$780 million) for various programs, most likely including whaling, in 2010. The spending review committee and Cabinet Office will have the final decision on whether or not the proposed whaling operations for 2010 are necessary or should also be cut. If the loans for whaling are revoked, it is unlikely the Institute of Cetacean Research can continue to operate. Reports in the Japanese media claim that the Institute has failed to fully repay more than one billion yen in previous OFCF loans.

EDIT

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2009/2009-11-12-01.asp

[sui generis]

1. so . . . reading between the lines here:

if a private consortium takes up their debt guarantee they will have successfully "privatized" whale hunting, erm, I mean, scientific whaling.

I'm guessing @ 90:1 Yen/$$ - that's only $111 million in guarantees, which is quite affordable to a reseller / distributor, provided there is a profit chain to be had.

BAD NEWS: it's conceivable that the Japanese government could reset, abate or forgive their current debt, and this could all just be a ruse designed to appease Obama during his visit.

The good news is that the prices are indeed higher than demand can support, so not only are there debt guarantees to consider, but the ongoing subsidy of ROI shortfall in covering the expense of acquiring the whale meat to begin with. Unless there is an explosion in whale hunting AND demand it is unlikely that a private consortium could do much more than sustain the current rate of losses, and that is something I'm quite happy about.