Hi Friend, Stakeouts, testimony from informers, hidden cameras and tailing trucks full of stolen goods - it reads like a Hollywood movie, but it has been an every day experience for Greenpeace activists in Japan. They spent four months cracking open a major conspiracy of corruption at the heart of Japan's government-backed, sham scientific whaling operation. It transpires that crew members from the Nisshin Maru, the factory ship which processes the dead whales, have been stealing and illegally selling the best cuts of whale meat. And not just on a small scale. Our sources indicate that as many as 120 out of the vessel's 150 strong crew may be involved, each smuggling between 200-300 kilos of prime whale meat ashore for illegal trade and personal gain. Even worse, it seems that the practice has been going on for years right under the noses of public officials who at best turned a blind eye, and at worst may have been complicit. Last Thursday our activists delivered a box of stolen whale meat plus supporting videotaped testimony to the Public Prosecutor's office in Tokyo, asking him to make a full public inquiry into how deep the corruption runs with the whaling programme. At the same time Greenpeace International asked supporters to write to the Japanese government and demand a full investigation. More than 40,000 people did just that, and yesterday we got the result we were hoping for. The Tokyo district Public Prosecutor confirmed that they will be taking on the case. Greenpeace will be cooperating in every way possible to ensure that it is a full investigation and that those responsible are prosecuted. An informer associated with whale hunting company Kyodo Senpaku told us that not only their employees were involved - officials from the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) - the agency that carries out the so-called "scientific research" work on board the whaler's factory ship Nisshin Maru - were almost certainly aware of the thefts as well. While the investigation is underway, we all need to push the Japanese government now to shut down whaling and cut off its tax subsidies (which currently amount to around $6 million every year). We also want to ensure that they investigate this scandal at the highest level - not just by scapegoating a few crew members. 
Please help keep up the pressure by sending a message to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Thank you for your support as always, Nick Young
Greenpeace NZ
http://weblog.greenpeace.org.nz | 
