The reputation of Greenpeace Japan appears to have dropped a few notches this week, with news [1] that the organization, in order to expose the theft of whale meat by crew members of a whaling research ship, itself stole meat to use as evidence of the crime. In order to seize packages of whale meat, members of Greenpeace Japan admitted to having entered a delivery company's distribution center in Tokyo on April 15th without permission. In total Greenpeace found 23.5 kilograms of whale meat, worth 100,000 to 300,000 yen (or roughly $1000-$3000 USD), smuggled by 12 crewmembers of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd.
News broadcast about the Greenpeace whale-meat revelation on May 15th
The claim [2] by a lawyer representing Greenpeace that: “The group's acts [such as trespassing] weren't illegal because they were attempting to uncover alleged theft” did not go over well with bloggers, however, who questioned the double-standard of committing a crime to expose another crime.
Blogger Kiyotani writes [3]:
捕鯨関係者の脇も甘かったわけですが、このような行為が法治国家で許されるわけはありません。
そのような主張が通るのであれば我々はグリーンピースやその顧問弁護士の犯罪を暴くためには事務所に押し入って書類を押収したり、グリーンピースのメンバーや弁護士を拉致監禁して、自白を強要することも「合法」ということになります。
今回の騒動ではグリーンピースが環境テロリストかつ犯罪集団であることが明らかになったわけです。当局は破防法をこの団体に適用すべきです。極左暴力集団やオウム真理教と大同小異です。
If this kind of claim is allowed to pass, then it follows that it would be “legal”, in order to expose the crimes of Greenpeace and their legal advisors, to break into their offices, take Greenpeace members and their lawyers captive, and force them to confess.
In the noise surrounding this case, it has become clear that Greenpeace are ecological terrorists, a criminal group. The authorities should apply the Anti-Subversive Authorities Act to this organization. It is essentially the same as violent ultra-left groups or the Aum Shinrikyou religious group.
Blogger gootdk, meanwhile, reads the Wikipedia entry [4] on Japanese research whaling and quotes these lines [5]:
「捕獲調査の副産物は有効利用が条約で義務付けられている」
「一般販売のほか学校給食などの公益事業に供され、その収入は調査捕鯨の費用に充てられている」
“Apart from general sales, [such byproducts] are furnished for public operations such as in school lunches and so on, and the revenue from this is set aside for expenses of research whaling”
The blogger goes on to note that 10kg or 20kg of whale meat is more than one would need for family use. Still, the position of Greenpeace is not convincing:
だからといって、グリーンピース・ジャパンの行為が許される訳ではありません。
明らかに犯罪です。
少なくとも、この運送会社の信頼を低下させました。
両者とも、法の下間違いのないように処断されることを望みます。
Obviously this is a crime.
At the very least, they have degraded trust in this shipping company.
I hope that both parties are judged so as to prevent mistakes of the law.
Blogger Hamayatti meanwhile agrees with the position of Greenpeace, but not with their strategy [6]:
「グリーンピース」の主張について賛同できる面もある。しかし、捕鯨の違法性を訴えながら、自分たちが盗人をしているようなやり方では説得力もなかろう。違法は違法として処罰されるのを覚悟しての主張こそ、その決意が分かろうというもの。摘発のためだから違法ではないと主張するのは、大義のための戦争と変わりはしない。