Greenpeace shifts focus to dialogue in anti-whaling campaign
Greenpeace Japan has said the focus of its anti-whaling campaign is shifting from active protesting to dialogue, stating that it will not be sending a ship to the Antarctic Sea this season.
The move not only marks a departure for the conservation group as it has sent such a ship for the past three years but also comes on the heels of the prosecution of two Greenpeace activists over a whale meat-related scandal.
The move not only marks a departure for the conservation group as it has sent such a ship for the past three years but also comes on the heels of the prosecution of two Greenpeace activists over a whale meat-related scandal.“The main reason we’ve decided not to send a ship is that we are seeing positive changes in Japan, with more people opposing whaling in the Southern Ocean,” Greenpeace campaigner Frode Pleym told a press conference in Tokyo on Friday.
The group also said it has documented enough evidence of Japan’s whaling activities over the years as it sent ships to the ocean a total of nine times. “We’ve thus decided to focus our activities in Tokyo,” where Japan’s whaling policies are made, said Wakao Hanaoka of Greenpeace Japan.
The group will seek to reach the Japanese public through dialogue and lobbying in the Diet and elsewhere in order to achieve an end to whaling by the Japanese government, it said.
Pleym was careful to note that the group is also eager to cultivate a different image among the Japanese public — not just as an anti-whaling campaigner but also as a crusader on such issues as food safety, genetically modified food and climate change.
“We would like to show the true face of Greenpeace. We are so much more also,” he said.