Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

A right-wing publication in Japan has made a manga cartoon of the Tokyo Two trial with their own twist on the proceedings – clearly taking the side of the whaling industry.

This defensive spin is something we always take as a good sign because when we provoke this kind of reaction – we’re being taken seriously as a threat. The right-wing media’s obvious resistance to putting government corruption in the spotlight just demonstrates how far we’ve come with this case already and we haven’t even brought witnesses to the stand yet.

What’s funny is that they portray the support for the Greenpeace case with “silence” at the end. Now either someone isn’t paying close enough attention or they are trying to convince the Japanese public that nobody is supporting Junichi and Toru despite overwhelming support from more than 400,000 people across the world since Juichi and Toru were arrested. This included human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Nobel Prize Winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Betty Williams together with celebrities such as Bryan Adams, William Shatner, Thandie Newton and Benicio Del Toro. Read more »

Dr. Martin Luther King Junior once said

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”

After acting on this fundamental principle, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, now known as the Tokyo 2, currently risk their freedom for simply having acted in the interest of the Japanese people by exposing an embezzlement scandal in the whaling industry, and calling on the government to investigate it.

Take action to support the Junichi and Toru here

As the trial date of February 15, 2010 approaches, a recent report of the Working group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) of the of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has concluded that the Japanese government breached a series of internationally guaranteed human rights by detaining Junichi and Toru, who had uncovered major corruption in the whaling programme. In observing that the rights of the two men have been breached by the justice system, the Tokyo Two and Greenpeace’s position on this issue has now been vindicated and corroborated by the competent United Nations body through its report. With this, we hope that the court takes due care to judge the case fairly.

The Working Group noted that the principal and only motivation behind their actions was the greater public interest, as they sought to expose criminal embezzlement. It recognises that they willingly cooperated with the police and the Public Prosecutor, that this cooperation was not acknowledged, and that the Government did not itself submit any essential information, such as details of their activities as environmental activists, the investigation they carried out, the evidence they gathered or the help they gave to authorities to formally investigate their allegations. Read more »

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, two activists from Greenpeace Japan now known as the Tokyo Two, face trial and a potential ten year prison sentence for exposing a scandal striking at the heart of Japan’s government whaling operation.

Toru Suzuki is one of our activists in Japan, now facing a maximum of 10 years in prison for exposing a crime at the heart of Japan’s whaling industry.

The so-called “scientific” whaling fleet has now returned to port from the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary for what we hope will be the last time, and it is almost one year since Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki exposed the embezzlement of whale meat by the fleet’s crew.

Junichi and Toru are still on trial for their efforts to expose this crime, however, recently their bail conditions were relaxed slightly, enabling them to come back to work – just not with each other.

Here’s Toru’s reflections on his first few weeks back at work… Junichi posted a few days ago, on his return…

I’m so glad to finally be able to come back home to the office.Well, I did feel little strange for the first five minutes, as it was my first time here in nine months. But it wasn’t long until it felt like the home it used to be.

Since I was released under bail restrictions, the most disappointing thing for me was that I was unable to see my Greenpeace colleagues.

Read more »

Junichi Sato is one of our oceans campaigners in Japan, now facing a maximum of 10 years in prison for exposing a crime at the heart of Japan’s whaling industry.

After nine months of disconnection from their colleagues and workplace, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki walked back into the Greenpeace Japan office last week like long-missed adventurers finally home.

Of course they did not come in on the same day, as while the bail conditions binding them have been relaxed enough for them to speak to their colleagues and come back to work, there are still a lot of kilometres left on their road, and they still cannot communicate directly with one another or be in the same place at the same time.

But they’re back, morale is up and we can all throw more energy into getting them justice, and ensuring there is justice for whales too.

Junichi would like to share some of his reflections on his first week back in the office. Read more »

Imagine your surprise if you discovered our tax dollars were being spent on teaching sheep to fly. Don’t panic, it’s an absurd idea. Now you have an insight into how people in Japan feel when they hear they are subsiding the country’s whaling industry through their taxes.

Greenpeace went out into the streets of Tokyo last week and asked people what they thought about their hard earned money being spent on killing whales. Watch this clip to see their reactions. Some are unaware Japan even has a whaling industry let alone that they are helping to pay for it.

Find out what people think their money should be spent on rather than the unjustifiable exploitation of the planet’s whales…

Mal Wren and the team in Aomori

Thanks for the messages of support following my update from last week…it is much appreciated. I pointed them out to my Greenpeace colleagues here in Aomori, and they were grateful as well. Knowing there is such solidarity out there gives the team a boost – sometimes it can feel like a little lonely and daunting working in an area where there is so much misunderstanding of what the organisation does and why. And particularly when those misunderstandings are of you as an individual – doubts over your actions and your motives, even thoughts of you as terrorist. Not nice.

It doesn’t take long having met the team here to understand they are committed and talented people, whose motivations are entirely about a healthy and sustainable environment. That’s what people in Aomori are discovering as the work of the communications centre unfolds.

Prejudices break down pretty quickly when they have a chance to meet and talk with the staff. Terrorist? Yeah Right, as beer drinkers in NZ might say.. The situation was summed nicely by the head of a local fishermans union here at our opening – “..i used to be wary of Greenpeace, and then I met Waka and realised we share the same goals and motivations – protecting fish for the future..”.
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It was indeed a black Friday last week. Two Greenpeace activists Junichi and Toru appeared in court for a pre trial hearing. They face the possibility of prison for their role in defending the whales – for exposing illegal whale meat trade in Japan.

Lawyers for two activists plan to use the case to expose corruption within Japan’s whaling industry. They say there are wider issues at stake and the activists’ actions have revealed a wide-spread rip-off of taxpayers’ money.
Read more »

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful Paddy Hart, a Dublin-born, Australian ex-whaler. “What is going on?”, you may well ask. “Is Greenpeace now consorting with whalers?”. Note that I said “ex-whaler” – Paddy was in Tokyo, Japan to support Junichi and Toru – the Tokyo Two, to ask Prime Minister Aso to quite whaling, and to reassure Japan’s whalers that there is life after whaling. Naturally, if you put two Irishmen together, you’ll never get us to shut up, so I spent a few days hearing of Paddy’s adventures over the years (and I told a few shaggy dog yarns myself). As well as being a great storyteller, Paddy was the skipper and harpoonist of a whaling vessel in Albany, Western Australia, in the 1970s until public opinion and economic rationale closed down the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company – the last whaling operation in the English-speaking world. Read more »

Mesmerizing timelapse video showing the making of a 17 metre fin whale sand sculpture on Bondi Beach, Sydney. Sculpture by Greenpeace activists and sand sculptures, video by Keith Loutit, music by Headstrong and Shelley Harland.

The sculpture was done as a protest against whaling, and in support of two Japanese activists who are facing up to 10 years in jail for exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal. If you don’t have tons of sand handy, you can still support them as well.

Here’s how:

1) Sign the Tokyo Two petition telling the Japanese government, “If defending whales is a crime, arrest me.”

2) Change your Facebook/Skype/whatever status to, “Wanted in Japan ”. (Winky smiley face optional, depending if you’re a winky smiley face kind of person.)

Video