Editorial: Japan flies in face of world opinion

Maseyuku Komatsu, a senior Japanese fisheries official, will not be a popular man in Tokyo. His admission that Japan has bribed poorer countries to support its whaling policies will not surprise many people. But he has dismantled a screen erected with considerable care by Japan as it cemented its place in the world community. Japanese arrogance is now plain to see. It has been revealed as willing to stoop to virtually any means to block the will of the majority of nations on the International Whaling Commission.

Mr Komatsu's confession confirms the long-held suspicion that Japan has used the lure of aid money to persuade countries to support its pro-whaling stance. This allowed it to defeat a joint New Zealand-Australian proposal for a South Pacific whaling sanctuary at the last annual IWC meeting. Six small Caribbean countries, for whom whaling is of as much direct interest as skiing, voted with Japan. That ensured the proposal failed narrowly to gain the necessary approval of 75 per cent of member nations.

A similar strategy is obviously planned when the Anzac duo reprise their plan at next week's IWC annual meeting in London. Japan is thought to have bought the votes of not only the Caribbean countries but also the Solomon Islands and Guinea. It has the numbers to block the sanctuary and any other conservation measures raised at the meeting.

Mr Komatsu defends the tactics as "simply diplomatic communication." He is right in so far as much diplomacy is a matter of give and take. But he is completely wrong in thinking that such blatant manipulation is acceptable. Effectively, Japan is mocking the IWC's ability to play a conservation role. Thus, its tactics call the future of the commission into question.

More immediately, it suggests that New Zealand and Australia will have little joy in pursuing a sanctuary, no matter how great the logic for it. The sanctuary would merge the tropical whale-breeding grounds of the South Pacific with the colder Antarctic feeding grounds within the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary established in 1994. More than six whale species' breeding and feeding range would thus be protected.

Japan, which views the Southern Ocean sanctuary with distaste, last year opposed any extension on the grounds that it was not scientifically based. That fob-off will carry little conviction when better-prepared New Zealand and Australian delegations, with the support of the United States, put the proposal again. Japan's bankrupt strategy will be all the more apparent. Its tactics will, unfortunately, also surely sink Brazil's proposed South Atlantic sanctuary. We are co-sponsoring that in return for the Brazilians' co-sponsorship of the South Pacific sanctuary.

It will be surprising if the IWC meeting in London finds common ground between the majority of nations who see its role as one of animal protection and the minority who believe it should be a resource manager. The commission faced other stalemates in its 55-year history before falling whale numbers forced an emphasis on conservation. But Mr Komatsu's statement indicates a significant hardening of the Japanese attitude.

To describe the minke whale, the species most commonly caught by Japanese whalers, as "a cockroach in the oceans" signifies a contempt for marine mammals. It also suggests that anti-whaling nations might be advised to start looking elsewhere to advance their cause.

It is tempting to think they may gain traction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This declared that deep-sea areas beyond national jurisdiction, and their resources, were the "common heritage of mankind." That might encourage the view that protection of the largest of living creatures fell within its ambit.

It is salutary to recall, however, the 12 years of effort and the horse trading involved when the United States wanted to redraft the convention's section on mining. Some of the pressure applied was doubtless of the Komatsu brand of "diplomatic communication." It is also salutary to recall the toothlessness of the convention's international tribunal when New Zealand sought to stop Japan's fishing of bluefin tuna for "research."

Japan has, similarly, long angered the anti-whaling bloc by using a loophole in the IWC rules to take whales for "scientific" purposes. Now, apparently emboldened, it has indicated its disdain for world opinion. It deserves only the greatest international opprobrium.