ARTICLE: Blocking Japan's Bid for UN

[thomas]

I do not intend to turn this thread into a collection of articles, but it seems that the political pressure on Japan is drastically increasing. Read the following article we found on Yahoo!Finance:

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SOURCE: International Fund for Animal Welfare

UN Day Highlighted by Congressional Action to Block Japan's Bid for UN Security Council Seat

NEW YORK, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- US Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA), along with 17 other House members, has introduced a congressional resolution seeking to block Japan from securing a seat on the United Nations Security Council, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) announced today, as the world celebrates UN Day 2000.

This high-level US government action is in direct response to Japan's annual, international whale hunt, which this year has been expanded to include 50 Bryde's and 10 sperm whales, in addition to 540 minke whales.

The resolution notes that, ``the President should oppose a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the Government of Japan until Japan's whaling activities comply with the requirements of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and Japan ends the commercialization of whale meat.''

International criticism continues to mount against Japan for what many consider blatant disregard for the spirit and intent of important, international agreements such as the IWC, which banned commercial whaling in 1986. Japan continues to hunt large whales and sell the meat commercially, in an IWC loophole allowing for ``scientific'' whaling in the name of research. The IWC, itself, opposes Japan's actions, and in July 2000 passed two resolutions to this effect.

``As Japan sits poised to receive a coveted seat on the UN Security Council,'' said IFAW President Fred O'Regan, ``its international reputation and its ability to act as a world leader is being threatened by a misdirected Fisheries Ministry that insists on carrying out a whale hunt deemed unnecessary by the Japanese public and illegitimate by the international community.''

Editor's Note: In a recent poll carried out in Japan 55% of those surveyed held no opinion or were neutral in regard to commercial whaling -- dispelling the wide-held belief that the Japanese public was a strong proponent of commercial whaling. While 14% opposed whaling outright, only 11% supported it. The survey was conducted by Britain's leading opinion research company MORI (Market & Opinion Research International), in partnership with the well- known Nippon Research Center in Japan.