The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 6 | Issue 12 | Article ID 2982 | Dec 01, 2008

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Campaigners fight to clear "Tokyo Two" in Whaling Case.Treatment of Greenpeace activists creates worldwide protests

David McNeill

Campaigners fight to clear “Tokyo Two” inWhaling Case

Extraord inary t reatment o f twoGreenpeace activists creates worldwideprotests

David McNeill Six months ago Sato Junichi and Suzuki Toruwere ordinary men looking after youngfamilies. But in June they were arrested by agroup of uniformed police, taken to a detentioncenter in Aomori, northern Japan and held for26 days. They were granted bail after paying 4,000,000yen each, but their re lease is h ighlyconditional. Neither is allowed to freely meet ortalk, leave home for extended periods or travelabroad. Both are watched by detectives andfollowed. They can only talk to journalists,separately, in their lawyer’s office. Anyviolation of these conditions will land themback in jail. Their crime? -- Taking a 23-kg box of whalemeat from a delivery company warehouse. If, aslooks very likely, they are found guilty oftrespassing and theft, they face a maximum often years in prison.

Sato Junichi presents whale meat to journalists inTokyo on May 15 that Greenpeace claims it

intercepted to prove large-scale fraud by whalers. APphoto

“Sometimes there are three policemenwatching my house,” says Sato (32), who wasinterrogated relentlessly and admits the ordealhas been hard on his family. “They’re quiteconservative and of course they’re veryworried.” Suzuki (41) shunned visits from his

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wife because he didn’t want his two-year-oldchild to see him in a police cell.

Sato and fellow Greenpeace activist Suzuki Toru werearrested on trespassing and theft charges in June and

were bailed the following month. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert for Greenpeace Japan

The arrest of Greenpeace activists Sato andSuzuki is the last salvo in the bitter warbetween anti-whaling campaigners and Japan’sauthorities. Tensions between the two sideshave ratcheted up since Japan announced lastyear that its fleet would add 50 humpbackwhales to its disputed annual cull in theSouthern Oceans. International protests forced the cancellation ofthe humpback kill but no let up in the stingingrhetoric of Japan’s Fisheries Agency, whodenounced Greenpeace as environmental

“terrorists.” For its part, Greenpeace upped the ante in thecampaign this year with an investigation intowhat they said was large-scale fraud aboardJapan’s main whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru.The investigation culminated in the decision tointercept the box of whale meat from awarehouse in mid-April, one of 47 parcelsallegedly sent by Nisshin Maru crew membersto addresses across Japan. According to Greenpeace, whalers aboard theship have long had the right to choice cuts fromthe government-subsidized whaling catch,which they sell on the black market. “This washappening systematically for years,” says thegroup’s Irish spokesman Dave Walsh, whoclaims the whalers earn thousands of dollars aseason for something that is already tax-funded. Sato and Suzuki aired these allegations at apress conference that won worldwide attention,before handing the meat over to the police inMay. The authorities responded by ignoring theclaims and launching a ferocious campaignagainst Greenpeace.

Suzuki Toru. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert for GreenpeaceJapan

A total of 38 policemen were reportedlyassigned from Aomori to investigate the “theft”case, plus a large squad of special detectives

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from Tokyo, who rejected Sato and Suzuki’sargument that the meat was borrowed to provea point, not stolen. Greenpeace phone records were intercepted,its Tokyo office was raided and the homes ofseveral members were searched. TV crewstipped off and waiting outside the office torecord the search later filed reports claimingthat Greenpeace members were being detainedunder “anti-terrorist laws.” Would a relatively small incident of propertytheft worth perhaps $3000 normally warrantsuch an expensive and carefully calibratedinvestigation? Neither the Aomori ProsecutorsOffice nor the Aomori police responded toquestions from the Irish Times about the case,or what might have provoked it. Japan’sFisheries Agency also declined to go on therecord, though an agency official, speakinganonymously, rejected claims that the arrest ofthe two was politically motivated.

“Western-style demonstrations (arenot) accepted by many Japanese,”he sa id . “The a t t i tude ( o fGreenpeace) is considered veryirresponsible and arrogant bymany.” The official branded thetwo men “criminals” who hadforced the authorities to takeaction. “Note that what they have donea r e n o t s i m p l e c r i m e sbut…challenges not only to thepolice and to the government, butalso the public.” Given the level ofgeneral anger against what thetwo did, says the official, “Ibelieve, the police have decided totreat this issue seriously.”

But Kaido Yuichi, a lawyer for the two men,

calls the charges against two men overblown.“They didn’t eat or sell the meat; they weretrying to expose embezzlement and misuse oftax money. What they did might merit say af ine or a warning, not arrest ing andimprisoning them.” He says the Japanese mediahas, in effect, already convicted the men. The arrest of the so-called Tokyo Two hassparked a global campaign to clear their namesand expose what activists call a witch-hunt. Greenpeace supporters have bombarded theAomori prosecutors with over quarter of amillion-mails demanding that charges againstthe two be dropped, and a delegation handed aletter of protest into the office of PrimeMinister Taro Aso yesterday. Demonstrationsare planned this week outside Japaneseembassies around the world. The protests come as Japan’s whaling fleetagain heads for the Southern Ocean in searchof 935 minke and 50 fin whales, part of itsannual “scientific whaling” expedition. Thefleet’s November departure was shrouded insecrecy to avoid protests.

Sato and Suzuki face a series of pre-trialsessions before the public trial begins, probablysometime next march. In the meantime, theyare planning their defense. Although fewbelieve the court will impose the maximumsentence, they say they are taking nothing forgranted. “We can’t underestimate what mighthappen because the case has become sopolitical,” points out Suzuki. He remains upbeat, but Sato, the moreexperienced activist, has lost weight and lookstired from the pressure of the looming trial.Still, he calls his arrest "positive" because ithas allowed people to see what he calls theproblems in Japanese society. "There is a lackof democracy and a lot of pressure on citizenactivism. This is clearly an overreaction by theauthorities."

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As evidence, he says when the police raided hishome, they seemed delighted to find the T-shirthe wore to the April press conference wherethey made the embezzlement claims, "proving"that he was there. "I wasn't denying I wasthere. But they needed something to show themedia waiting in front of my house."

David McNeill writes for The Irish Times andother newspapers, including The Chronicle ofHigher Education and The Independent. He is aJapan Focus coordinator. This article was published at The Japan Timeson December 9, 2008 and at The Asia-PacificJournal: Japan Focus on December 9, 2008. Recommended citation: David McNeill,“Campaigners fight to clear “Tokyo Two” inWhaling Case,” The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol50-3-08, December 8, 2008.

Other recent articles by David McNeill include:

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xecutions__The_Yomiuri_and_Japan___s_Death_Penalty)

Y a k u z a W a r s(http://japanfocus.org/_David_McNeill__J_Adelstein-Yakuza_Wars)

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Martyrs for Peace: Japanese antiwar activistsjailed for trespassing in an SDF compound vowt o f i g h t o n(http://japanfocus.org/_David_McNeill-Martyrs_for_Peace__Japanese_antiwar_activists_jailed_for_trespassing_in_SDF_compound_vow_to_fight_on)

Harpooned. Japan and the future of whaling(http://japanfocus.org/_David_McNeill-Harpooned__Japan_and_the_future_of_whaling)Japan and the Whaling Ban: Siege MentalityF u e l s ‘ S u s t a i n a b i l i t y ’ C l a i m s(http://japanfocus.org/_David_McNeill-Japan_and_the_Whaling_Ban__Siege_Mentality_Fuels__Sustainability__Claims)