On November 22, 2012, anti-whaling activists said that there would be demonstrations in Tokyo as well as in eight other cities across the globe this weekend against whale hunting in Japanese waters. The protesters will be meeting in the Japanese capital to call for an end to the hunt, which is an annual state-sponsored whaling mission in the Southern Ocean. The event is due to begin in a few weeks time.
The protesters will also call for an end to the slaughter of dolphins in the town of Taiji in the Wakayama Prefecture. Hideaki Nagai, the group spokesperson for the Action for Marine Mammals said that they are planning on marching through the commercial districts of Shibuya and Harajuku on November 24, 2012.
The spokesperson also revealed that demonstrations are being planned in London, Los Angeles, Canberra, Miami, Milan, Sao Paulo, Vancouver and Texas on the same day. Nagai said, “We don’t think whaling and dolphin-hunting are necessary in Japan, although we are not against indigenous people’s rights to hunt marine mammals”.
The spokesperson also said that hunting wild dolphins to send them to aquariums is ethically problematic. The Japanese hunt for whales by exploiting a loophole on a global moratorium, which allows the killing of sea mammals for the purpose of scientific research.
