TAKE ACTION
Latest news
Ending whaling - the solution to climate change?
Posted by jossc on 4 August 2008.
Interesting news in from Japan (where as you'll remember, the government recently took the bizarre step of prosecuting two of our activists for exposing corruption between their own Fisheries Agency and whaling company Kyodo Senpaku).
Whale expert and former councellor for the Institute of Cetacean Research (in whose name the commercial whaling operation which masquerades as 'scientific reseach' is officially conducted), Shigeko Misaki, has written a blistering letter to the Japan Times demanding that all whaling in the Southern Ocean should be ended:
Read more »
Whale meat scandal updates
Posted by jossc on 30 July 2008.
Updates on the scandal involving the corrupt and powerful Japanese whaling industry (which is funded with taxpayers' money). Plus ways in which you can support our two activists, Junichi and Toru, who are still awaiting trial for intercepting a box of stolen whale meat, and delivering it to the police.
Activists charged for exposing whale meat scandal
Posted by jossc on 10 July 2008.
Update July 15 2008: After 23 days on remand Junichi and Toru have finally been released on bail today. We'd like to say a huge thank you to the many international Non-Governmental Organisations who signed a Statement of Concern about the situation, and above all to the quarter of a million people who sent an email to the Japanese government demanding their release.
Read more »
Video: Free the Tokyo Two
Posted by bex on 4 July 2008.
Our activist friends, Junichi and Toru, are still behind bars: 23 days without charge after exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal.
A huge thanks to all 200,000 plus of you who've written to Japan's prime minister to free them - let's keep up the pressure!
And keep an eye on the latest count, updated hourly:
23 days in custody without charge for Greenpeace Japan activists
A court in Aomori, Japan has ruled that two Greenpeace peaceful protestors who exposed a major scandal around the embezzlement of whale meat from the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling programme will spend the maximum time in custody without charge permissible under Japanese law - 23 days.
Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were arrested on June 20th after exposing the scandal, despite offering to cooperate with any police investigation and having already submitted, under their own initiative, written statements about the undercover investigation, which revealed large-scale theft of meat from the tax-payer funded so-called scientific whaling programme.
"With this additional custody order, Junichi and Toru are to spend twenty three days in detention without charge, despite having given the police all the information they need. This is much longer than the time spent by the Tokyo District Prosecutor investigating the evidence presented by Greenpeace of an embezzlement ring within the so-called scientific whaling fleet," commented Greenpeace International Executive Director, Gerd Leipold. "The authorities in Japan must, as a matter of urgency, refocus their energy on investigating the crimes covered up by the whaling industry and sectors of the Government, not the method of exposing the evidence."
Since their arrest, nearly 190,000 people have sent letters to the Japanese Government calling for the release of Junichi and Toru and further demanding a full investigation into the whale meat embezzlement scandal. Protests have been held outside Japanese embassies in 33 cities across 29 countries.
In a message to supporters, sent via their lawyers, Junichi and Toru welcomed the support they have had from people all over the world, adding: "We still need your help. We have been ordered to remain in custody for ten more days without charge. Please encourage your friends to send an email to the Japanese government, if they have not already. Keep watching for news from Greenpeace of more actions you can take and make sure that the global demand to investigate the whale meat scandal we exposed is heard loud and clear here in Japan."
Ends.
Notes:
Greenpeace has begun a series of activities at Japanese embassies around the world protesting the detention of Junichi and Toru. Nearly 190,000 people have now written to demand their release.
Download the "Stolen Japanese Whale Meat Scandal" dossier.
For further information contact:
Keiko Shirokawa: Greenpeace Japan Media, in Tokyo: + 81 90 3470 7884
Dave Walsh, Greenpeace International, in Tokyo: +81 80 5877 2587
Mike Townsley, Greenpeace International, in Amsterdam: +31 621 296 918
Day out at the Japanese Embassy
Posted by saunvedan on 30 June 2008.
It was only my second Greenpeace demonstration after the Big NO to Heathrow's third runway a few weeks back. But this time, we were calling for the release of Junichi and Toru, our Japanese campaigners who are being held in prison without charge for the past ten days and counting. They were arrested for exposing Japan's 'scientific' whaling mission to be a cover up for trade in whale meat. We gathered outside the Japanese embassy with 'Free Junichi and Toru' posters along with a bi-lingual banner with the same message in English and Japanese.
Read more »
Free the Tokyo Two
Posted by jossc on 30 June 2008.
Update July 1 2008: 23 days in custody without charge for Greenpeace Japan activists
Greenpeace supporters gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in London this lunchtime. They held a peaceful protest to express solidarity with the two anti-whaling campaigners currently being held without trial in Japan for their role in exposing a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program.
Among the ranks was Greenpeace UK Director John Sauven, who handed in a letter to Ambassador Shin Ebihara asking him to make urgent representation to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda for their immediate release, and to order a further investigation into the scandal exposed by Greenpeace.
Read more »
Live from the IWC -something happen anytime soon now
Posted by dave on 26 June 2008.
IWC Chairman William Hogarth opens the Whale Kingdom for the Greenpeace Ocean Defenders
This is my first blog from the International Whaling Commission - as I write, we're into the third day of the five-day meeting, at the Sheraton Hotel, in Santiago, Chile. Without trying to justify why it's taken me so long to write something, I would like to explain - despite the fact that not much has happened here so far, it's still been a pretty busy few days.
Read more »
Japan's stolen whale meat scandal: whistleblowers arrested for exposing the truth
Posted by jossc on 20 June 2008.
Japanese police have arrested the two Greenpeace activists responsible for exposing a whale meat scandal involving the government-sponsored whaling programme. The two activists, Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, are being investigated for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat which they presented as evidence.
Read more on our international site
Read more »