Controversial New Documentary Film: The Cove

(Image borrowed from http://songphon.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/the-cove/)

There has been much talk about the new documentary film, The Cove, which depicts the alleged slaughtering of dolphins in a small Japanese village. The film brings to the forefront the age-old question of cultural traditions versus animal rights. Do the Japanese have the right to kill and eat dolphins? How about whales? How about blue-fin tuna?

Here are some sections of a recent article about the new film from Japan Today:

"The Cove" gets mixed reaction from Japanese audience

"The Cove," a U.S. investigative documentary about dolphin hunting in Wakayama Prefecture, made its debut in Japan on Wednesday, with the movie’s director describing the work as a "love letter" to Japanese people informing them of the adverse health effects from eating dolphin meat.

The film, which has prompted criticism of dolphin hunting in the western Japanese town of Taiji following screenings in countries such as the United States and Australia, was shown as part of the lineup of the 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival.

Director Louis Psihoyos flew into Tokyo for the festival despite worries that he might be arrested on trespassing charges from making “The Cove.” Police have repeatedly questioned the secret shooting of key footage in the documentary.

The fishermen have blocked access to the cove with barbed wire and fences, and Psihoyos was unable to get permission to access it. So he and his film team secretly broke into the restricted area—which is in a national park—at night to set up cameras that capture the slaughter.

“It’s very courageous of the Tokyo film festival to show this film,” said Psihoyos. “I’d also like to thank the Japanese government for not arresting me when I came in. I was pretty nervous yesterday, and I’m still a little nervous about getting out.”

...

Organizers at the Tokyo film festival clearly wanted to distance themselves from the film. A disclaimer stating that the festival had nothing to do with the production of “The Cove” ran at the start of the screening, and festival officials prevented journalists from interviewing viewers, herding them off the premises of the event in Roppongi Hills.

Japanese people who watched the movie showed mixed reactions, with some calling afterwards for a halt to the dolphin hunting and others raising questions about some of the ways the film was made.

"It’s a movie that takes up a difficult issue," said Mai Miyashita, a 32-year-old housewife living in Tokyo. "I can only say that dolphin hunting should be stopped immediately...although I do not think it will be easy because the livelihood of people in Taiji depends on it."

Rikako Yamane, a 21-year-old university student from Tokyo, said she was shocked to see footage of dolphins being killed by fishermen, but added that she felt the movie was lacking in the presentation of objective data as well as the voices of people in Taiji.

Tempei Miyaji, 26, a university student who lives in Germany, expressed concern that the scene of the dolphin killing was taken covertly.

"I cannot deny that (the movie) is evocative, but there may be some parts that are exaggerated," Miyaji said. "It would have been good if it had included what local people have to say and become something that would lead toward a resolution through talks."

Junko Inoue, a resident of Saitama, said she found the final scene, where dozens of dolphins trapped in a hidden cove are speared by fishermen, turning the water blood red, “shocking.” But she didn’t think the hunt should be stopped entirely. “There are a lot of cultural differences in people’s eating habits,” she said.

“Westerners say it’s OK to kill and eat cows, but not dolphins,” said Hiroshi Hatajima, a 42-year-old office worker from Tokyo. “That kind of special treatment isn’t going to register with a lot of Japanese. We have to eat animals to survive. It’s a cultural clash.” The film, while well-made, “comes across as somewhat propaganda-like,” he said.

...

At a press briefing following the screening, Psihoyos praised the film festival for its "courageous act" to show the film, but noted that the move was made possible due to the change in government in Japan that ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

"Three months ago, it would have been impossible to show this film. The LDP...was an oligarchy and the outgoing powers did not want this film shown," he said without further elaboration.

Read the whole story and reader comments at Japan Today:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/director-calls-the-cove-his-love-letter-to-japanese-people

The film brings up a lot of interesting issues in both its subject matter and filming methods. And it certainly does not hide its own bias.

For more information about the film:

Sundance Film Festival webpage:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/cove

The Cove webpage (includes a trailor):
http://www.thecovemovie.com/

"Sea Shepherd files complaint against police to protect Cove Guardian volunteers"

More about "The Cove" from Japan Today, 12/17/14:

A Japanese attorney based in Tokyo has sent a formal letter, on behalf of his client Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, to the Shingu and Wakayama City Police, countering accusations from the police departments that Sea Shepherd’s Cove Guardian volunteers violated Japanese law by following a truck on public roads and taking photographs to document the transportation of dolphins for captivity.

Sea Shepherd said in a press release that the formal letter is the beginning of legal action to protect the basic constitutional rights of Sea Shepherd’s Cove Guardian volunteers on the ground in Japan.

On Nov 21, Cove Guardian volunteers followed a truck holding dolphins in crates, as the cetaceans captured in Taiji’s hunt were being transferred for captivity at an aquarium or marine park. The Cove Guardians say they complied with Japanese law to ensure the safety of all involved.

However, police approached the volunteers on Nov 22 and told them that following the truck is an offense under “Minor Offense Law.” On the morning of Dec 9, police also told the Cove Guardians that photographs taken Dec 8 outside a location that purchases dolphin meat were taken in violation of Wakayama city ordinance. The police warned the Sea Shepherd volunteers that if they attempt these activities again, they will face arrest.

Sea Shepherd’s attorney has notified the police departments that the Cove Guardians acted within the basic rights guaranteed by Japan’s constitution. The formal letter states (translated into English), “These activities are to investigate the truth and to record it, as it is guaranteed by our constitution article 21-1 ‘Freedom of Expression’ and it is not at all ‘illegal.’ Therefore we demand that you notify us, which actions would apply to which law, the number of articles, etc. in a precise manner within two weeks after receiving this letter. If we do not receive your reply, then we will conclude that you have admitted that you did an illegal action of impeding their freedom of expression.”

Each year since the beginning of Sea Shepherd’s Operation Infinite Patience campaign in 2010, the Cove Guardians have been on the ground in Taiji throughout the entire six-month annual hunt season, documenting the capture and slaughter of dolphins and small whales, and live streaming these atrocities for the world to see.

Sea Shepherd Senior Cove Guardian Campaign Leader, Melissa Sehgal was denied entry into Japan this month to document the slaughter, despite never violating the law during her four seasons in Taiji. She was sent home on Dec 8 — the same day the Cove Guardians were being monitored by police — after nine hours of interrogation and an overnight stay in a holding cell on Dec 7.

“Sea Shepherd promised that our Cove Guardian volunteers will always act in accordance with Japanese law, and we have continued to honor that promise. We want to ensure that the Cove Guardians are able to return to Taiji until the slaughter ends,” said Sehgal. “I am hopeful that this beginning of legal action will not only protect the rights of our volunteers on the ground, but also help us to be even more effective in our efforts for the dolphins and whales.”

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/sea-shepherd-files-complaint-against-police-to-protect-cove-guardian-volunteers

No matter how one feels about the dolphin/whale issues, it seems these Cove Guardians are a bit naive about Japanese law. Laws other than those in the constitution apply, which include those dealing with photographing without consent, nuisance and portrait rights.

"'Cove' director gives free DVDs to Taiji residents"

More about The Cove from today's Japan Today:

Copies of the 2010 Oscar-winning film that depicts the slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji have been delivered free to its residents, compliments of the director.
 
Louie Psihoyos, director of “The Cove,” said Monday the film dubbed in Japanese was delivered via regular mail over the weekend to all households, with the help of a local group called People Concerned for the Ocean.
 
An official at Taiji city hall confirmed that two copies of the DVD had been received, but no one had looked at them yet.
 
Psihoyos said he was concerned many Japanese have yet to see the film, but especially the 3,500 people of Taiji in the southwest of the country.
 
“The people in Taiji deserve to know what millions of others around the world have learned about their town,” said the American director.
 
“The Cove” received a Best Documentary Oscar a year ago for its scathing portrayal of Taiji’s dolphin hunting tradition. It showed about a dozen fishermen scaring the dolphins with metallic banging noises into a cove, and then stabbing them as they bled and writhed in the water.
 
The film outraged many around the world, but Japan has defended the practice.
 
The film was shown last year at some theaters in the country. But the theaters and the distributor were often targeted by protesters who objected to the film as disrespectful to Japanese culture. They used trucks with blaring loudspeakers in an attempt to intimidate neighborhoods into shutting down the shows.
 
“I hope the people of Taiji feel a sense of relief when they see ‘The Cove’ because they’ll realize that it is just a handful of local environmental thugs giving a whole nation a black eye, not them,” Psihoyos told The Associated Press. “To me the film is a love letter to the people of Taiji.”
 
The Japanese government allows about 20,000 dolphins to be caught each year. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat. The hunts generate far more money from selling live animals to aquariums.
According to a senior member of the association, the package’s sender was ‘‘Umi o kangaeru gurupu’’ (a group that thinks about the ocean).
Along with the DVD, the envelope contained a message urging recipients to watch it once to judge what the movie wants to convey, he said. ‘‘It’s creepy. I don’t plan to watch it,’’ he said.
    
Free viewing of the Japanese-dubbed version of “The Cove”:
http://www.thecovemovie.com/freejapanesedownload
 
“The Cove”:
http://www.thecovemovie.com/ 

Read the story and reader comments: http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/cove-director-gives-free-dvd-to-japan-residents

"Dolphin-killing town to open marine park"

VAOJ has been reporting on The Cove for a while. Here's the latest. From Japan Today, Oct. 8, 2013:

The Japanese town made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove”, will open a marine mammal park where visitors can swim with dolphins, but will not end its annual slaughter, an official said Monday.

The town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture has begun researching a plan to section off part of a cove and turn it into a place where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, Masaki Wada told AFP.

But, Wada insisted, far from having caved in to pressure from conservationists who want an end to an annual hunt that turns waters red with blood, the project was aimed at helping to sustain the practice.

“We already use dolphins and small whales as a source of tourism in the cove where dolphin-hunting takes place,” he said.

“In summer, swimmers can enjoy watching the mammals that are released from a partitioned-off space,” he said.

“But we plan to do it on a larger scale. This is part of Taiji’s long-term plan of making the whole town a park, where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products, including whale and dolphin meat,” he said.

The park will be separate from Hatakejiri Bay, the place into which the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphins, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks, and stab the rest to death for meat.

The plan calls for the creation of a whale amusement park stretching roughly 28 hectares by putting up a net at the entrance to Moriura Bay in northwestern Taiji, the official said.

The 2009 film “The Cove” brought Taiji to worldwide attention, winning an Oscar the following year, after graphically showing the killing, including by using underwater cameras. Activists continue to visit the town to protest the hunt.

Taiji is looking to open part of the park within five years, the Wada said.

Black whales and bottlenose dolphins caught in waters near the town would be released into the pool, which would be developed as a nature park that also includes beaches and mudflats, he said.

Wakayama Prefecture said the town caught 1,277 dolphins in 2012 and has license to capture 2,026 this season, which began in September and runs until August next year.

Tokyo-based conservationist group Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network (IKAN) said the plan was “unfortunate” for the town.

“The whole plan is based on the concept that they can exploit dolphins and whales freely as their resource, but the mammals don’t belong to Taiji,” said Nanami Kurasawa, the IKAN secretary general.

“Marine mammals migrate across oceans, and internationally public opinion is that wildlife should be allowed to live as they are. The plan will only ignite more protests over dolphin-hunting,” she said.

People in Taiji argue that dolphin-hunting is part of a 400-year-old whaling and culinary tradition.

But Kurasawa said demand for dolphin meat is dwindling and only 100 people of the 3,400 population are engaged in dolphin hunting-related businesses.

“If they want to get more tourists, they can for example exhibit the beautiful whale-hunting ships used in ancient days, that would show their tradition without stirring more controversy,” she said.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/dolphin-killing-town-to-open-marine-park

Previous VAOJ coverage of The Cove: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.jp/search?q=the+cove

"'The Cove' puts Japanese fishermen everywhere on the defense"

More "Cove" stuff from Japan Today:

As soon as the fishermen saw my TV camera, one ran at me, yelling “No!” and pushing me out of the building. Another smeared his rubber fish gutting glove across my lens, while a third threw snow at me with a shovel.

Following the success of “The Cove,” a documentary about the dolphin-hunting village of Taiji that won an Oscar Sunday, Japanese fishermen are particularly sensitive to filming of whaling or dolphin-hunting—or the morning catch of Dall’s porpoise, as I was.

Past media coverage of Taiji, in southwestern Japan, and international opposition to Japan’s whaling have made fishermen involved in hunting dolphins and porpoises wary of the press.

So I knew I would not be welcome last Wednesday morning as I drew up to the snow-buried quayside in Otsuchi—in northern Iwate prefecture, some 840 kilometers northeast of Taiji—to try and capture evidence of the hunt on camera.

Sure enough, lying in an open warehouse on the wharf were rows of about 30-odd carcasses of Dall’s porpoise, with their distinctive black bodies and white bellies.

I had been tipped off about the porpoise hunt in Otsuchi by members of the conservation group Environmental Investigation Agency, and a freelance cameraman hired by the group was with me, showing me around.

Iwate catches the most porpoises of any prefecture in Japan, according to the latest available figures from the fisheries ministry. In 2007, 10,218 porpoises were caught in Iwate, almost a third of which were Dall’s porpoise, which are named after the American naturalist W.H. Dall.

Soon after I was pushed away by the fishermen, the police arrived.

First, two uniformed officers in a patrol car spent 20 minutes checking my ID. Before they had finished, two plainclothes detectives arrived in an unmarked jeep.

One of their first questions: “Are you filming something like ‘The Cove’?”

I explained that I’m a journalist and that I was disappointed that the fishermen shouted down my pleas for an interview: I wanted them to tell the world what they think.

It wasn’t always like this. Seven years ago when I was filming in Taiji, the villagers were generally more willing to talk. One diver who slits the dolphins’ throats offered to line up an interview with the fishermen’s cooperative chief—a request that was ultimately denied.

But ever since “The Cove,” Western TV crews, never popular at whaling villages, are greeted with hostility. Many fishermen believe that such movies feed the popular anti-whaling movement that threatens their culture, way of life and livelihoods.

The irony is most Japanese don’t eat dolphin or porpoise—sea mammals that are related to whales. The meat is not readily available in supermarkets and in fact most Japanese don’t know that some villages hunt these species.

On my second visit to Taiji, in October, “The Cove” effect was already in place. All I got were refusals and shouted insults.

Here in Otsuchi, the police were polite but insistent: “We don’t want you to film any porpoises.”

“Just don’t want you to do anything else that will cause trouble,” one of the detectives said in parting.

Returning to the hotel where I had spent the previous night, I asked to extend my stay. But I was told that the seemingly empty building was “fully booked,” so I checked out. Did they get a call from the police perhaps?

It seemed that more than ever towns like Taiji and Ostuchi were closing ranks to protect traditions they feel are under threat.

Link to the story and reader comments:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/the-cove-puts-japanese-fishermen-everywhere-on-the-defense

"Right-wingers vow to block release of 'The Cove' in Japan"

More "Cove" related news from today's Japan Today:

Dozens of right-wing activists protested Friday outside the office of a Japanese distributor of the Oscar-winning “The Cove,” demanding that the gory portrayal of dolphin hunting in Japan not be shown in the country.

“The Cove” won this year’s best documentary Oscar with its depiction of dolphin hunts in Taiji, a small fishing village in western Japan.

The protesters Friday accused the distributor of betraying Japanese national pride by supporting the film, which they see as insulting to traditional village culture of which dolphin hunting is part.

“Traitor! Money scavenger! Shame on you!” Shuhei Nishimura, who led Friday’s protest, shouted outside the downtown Tokyo office of the distributor, Unplugged Inc.

He demanded a meeting with the company president, while about 30 protesters held up signs saying “Crash the showing of anti-Japanese film ‘The Cove,’” and urging the Japanese to “be angry.”

Nishimura handed a statement to a company employee, who declined to comment or be identified. Unplugged President Takeshi Kato did not show up.

“We will block the distribution of the movie and we will protect this country,” Nishimura said. “If the country does not protect the life, spirit and pride of its people, we will have to protect them by ourselves.”

The film has not yet been released in Japan, but it will start showing here in June at 20 to 30 theaters nationwide. When it was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October, viewers gave it mixed reviews. Unplugged had said it planned to obscure the faces of the Japanese fishermen in Taiji to protect their privacy.

The documentary, directed by Louie Psihoyos, follows Ric O’Barry, a trainer for the 1960s “Flipper” TV series who says he became an activist because of a suicidal dolphin in his charge. The film team broke into a restricted area to set up cameras that captured the slaughter.

Taiji, the village of 3,500 people, has been hunting dolphins and whales since the early 1600s. It calls itself “Whale Town” and has a massive pair of whale statues looming over the main road. “The Cove” refers to Taiji and its dolphin fishing as “a little town with a really big secret.”

Most Japanese do not eat dolphin meat. Its consumption is limited to a handful of fishing villages where the animal is hunted.

The Japanese government allows about 19,000 dolphins to be killed each year. Taiji hunts about 2,000 dolphins every year for meat—less than other places—but is singled out in part because of its method of herding and killing them near the shore. Some are captured and sold to aquariums and dolphin shows at water parks.

Read the story and reader comments:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/right-wingers-vow-to-block-release-of-the-cove-in-japan

"'Cove' town in Wakayama plans to open dolphin park"

What do you do when your fishing practices are wildly unpopular? Open an amusement park... More on The Cove, from Japan Today, 5/2/12:

The dolphin-hunting Japanese town of Taiji, made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” plans to open a marine mammal park where visitors can swim with the creatures, a media report said.

The town intends to section off part of the cove and turn it into a place where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, Jiji Press news agency reported, calling it “a marine safari park.”

The cove is the scene of an annual slaughter when the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphins, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks, and stab the rest to death for meat, turning the sea red.
The 2009 film “The Cove” brought Taiji to worldwide attention, winning an Oscar the following year, after showing the bloody slaughter. Activists continue to visit the town to protest the hunt.

Taiji, in western Wakayama Prefecture, aims to officially launch the project within five years after negotiating with the prefectural government, which manages the bay, and with pearl farmers operating there, Jiji reported.

The plan, compiled by a panel of residents, calls for the creation of “a whale park” stretching roughly 28 hectares by putting up a net at the entrance to Moriura Bay in northwestern Taiji, it said.

Black whales and bottlenose dolphins caught in waters near the town would be released into the pool, which would be developed as a nature park that also includes beaches and mudflats, it said.

“We want to send out the message that the town is living together with whales,” Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen, was quoted as saying.

The local government will also study whether it is possible to raise large whales there, the agency said, adding it intends to use the park for therapy and ecological research.

The town caught 928 dolphins in 2011, according to Wakayama Prefecture.

A town official, who declined to be named, told AFP by telephone that the town “is no way going to stop” its annual dolphin hunt, adding local residents see no contradiction in both watching and eating dolphins. 

Link: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/cove-town-in-wakayama-plans-to-open-dolphin-park

"Film tries to rebut ‘Cove’ documentary on Taiji dolphin hunt"

From The Japan Times, 8/8/15:

A Japanese film is being offered as a rebuttal to the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” which depicted dolphins being slaughtered in the tiny town of Taiji.

“Behind The Cove” has interviews with Japanese whaling officials and footage of a whaling festival and Hiroshima atomic bomb victims to counter what director Keiko Yagi thinks is “Japan-bashing.”

Her film argues that whale meat provided food in the lean years after Japan’s defeat in World War II and was frequently served in school lunches. The practice has been phased out, though, and most Japanese these days have never eaten whale or dolphin meat.

“Unless we can respect each other’s food culture, war will be a never-ending story,” Yagi told reporters after a screening Friday in Tokyo.

She filmed retired whalers reminiscing about the old days, but not today’s dolphin hunters or the people engaged in the lucrative business of selling dolphins to overseas aquariums and marine shows.

“The Cove” was named best documentary at the 2009 Academy Awards. It referred amply to the aquarium industry and contained surreptitiously obtained footage of Taiji fishermen in small boats herding a pod of dolphins into the cove, scaring them with loud clanging noises and then stabbing them to death as the dolphins writhed about and the water turned red.

Yagi, who acknowledged she didn’t even own a tripod until halfway through her first film, was delighted that people had agreed to speak on camera, and her film is largely a stream of interviews.

Among those interviewed are “The Cove” star Ric O’Barry and director Louie Psihoyos, as well as members of Sea Shepherd, an activist group against dolphin and whale hunts.

O’Barry acknowledges he would have included more Japanese people in “The Cove” if he had directed. He trained dolphins for the 1960s “Flipper” TV series, then had a change of heart and has since devoted his life to defending dolphins.

Psihoyos says he does not approve of picking on Japanese people.

The Sea Shepherd activists appear friendly in their interviews.

Both O’Barry and Psihoyos declined comment to The Associated Press, saying they had not yet seen the film.

In previous interviews with AP, both have said they wanted to point out the cruelty of the dolphin killing. They say only a small group of people in Taiji benefit from the slaughter and have suggested other ways to support the local economy, such as tourism.

There are no immediate screening plans for Yagi’s film.

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/08/08/national/film-tries-rebut-cove-documentary-taiji-dolphin-hunt/#.VcW2IkVZG2w

VAOJ Catch-up: More "Cove" Related News

This news isn't really so new, but VAOJ fell behind during the end of the academic semester and final's week. VAOJ has long been following events surrounding the film "The Cove." Below are a couple of articles describing recent developments.

"Japanese aquariums vote to stop getting dolphins from Taiji hunt"

From Japan Today, 5/21/15:

Japan’s zoos and aquariums voted Wednesday to stop using dolphins caught by the controversial “drive hunt” method in Taiji, allowing them to remain part of a global body that had suspended the country’s chapter over the issue.

The vote was prompted by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (WAZA) suspension of the Japanese chapter (JAZA) last month, saying it had refused to stop taking dolphins caught in the southern Japanese whaling town.

Taiji came to worldwide attention after the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove” showed pods of the animals forced into a bay and butchered with knives, in a mass killing that turned the water red with blood.

“JAZA will prohibit its members to acquire wild dolphins caught by drive fishing in Taiji and to take part in their export and sale,” JAZA chairman Kazutoshi Arai said in a letter to WAZA following the vote, which saw an overwhelming majority (99) of the 152 members opt to remain part of the global body.

JAZA does not regard drive hunt as “cruel”, Arai told during a press briefing, adding that a dolphin from Taiji costs about a million yen.

“Various facilities (zoos and aquariums) will have to cooperate to promote breeding,” Arai said.

Earlier, JAZA executive director Kensho Nagai said: “We annually take about 20 dolphins from Taiji, but we have improved how we hunt, separating our hunt from everything else at Taiji that is for dolphin meat.

“But we don’t have control over the rest of the dolphin catch, part of which is said to be sold by local brokers to aquariums in China and the Middle East,” he added.

Taiji residents have long defended the drive hunt saying its purpose is to obtain dolphin meat, which they say is a traditional part of their diet.

But some live dolphins are also sold on after the drive hunt—which typically involves pushing the animals together with boats and closing off their escape, forcing them into a coastal bay.

Critics of the practice say there is insufficient demand for dolphin meat and drive hunting is only profitable because of the high prices live dolphins can fetch when sold to aquariums and dolphin shows.

“WAZA requires all members to adhere to policies that prohibit participating in cruel and non-selective methods of taking animals from the wild,” the global body said when it suspended JAZA.

A weekend Japanese report said nearly half the dolphins in the country’s aquariums are caught using the controversial fishing method, but it did not specify whether the dolphins came from Taiji.

Chief Cabinet Secretary and top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday the government “is aware” of the controversy between WAZA and its Japanese chapter, and “the government will take measures to avoid any ramifications on exhibitions in aquariums.”

The drive hunt “is a sustainable fishing (method) under appropriate control by… the government with scientific foundations, and is being carried out carefully so that dolphins are not hurt,” Suga said.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japanese-aquariums-vote-to-stop-getting-dolphins-from-taiji-hunt

Taiji fishermen vow to continue dolphin slaughter

From Japan Today, 5/28/15:

Japanese fishermen vowed Wednesday to continue their dolphin hunt, despite a pledge by zoos and aquariums not to buy animals caught with the controversial method.

“We will never stop it,” Yoshifumi Kai of the fisherman’s cooperative in the western Japanese town of Taiji, where the hunt takes place, told reporters.

The press conference came a week after Japan’s zoos and aquariums voted to stop using dolphins caught by the so-called “drive hunt” method, as demanded by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

Some dolphins are captured alive and sold to aquariums, fetching about 1 million yen each.

The vote was prompted by WAZA’s suspension of the Japanese chapter (JAZA) last month over the issue.

WAZA regards drive hunt fishing—where pods of cetaceans are herded into a bay by a wall of sound before being butchered—as “cruel”, a charge local fishermen reject.

“It’s unclear which part of the drive hunt WAZA considers cruel,” Kai said.

“We used to harpoon dolphins but that’s several decades ago. Now we sever the spinal cord in a moment and there is not much blood.”

Shuichi Matsumoto, head of another local fisherman’s group, said they “have not broken any rules,” adding the group wants to continue the tradition and pass it on to future generations.

Taiji came to worldwide attention after the Oscar-winning 2009 documentary “The Cove” showed pods of the animals forced into a bay and slaughtered with knives, in a mass killing that turned the water red with blood.

Animal rights activists continue to protest in the town, despite hostility from locals who say they are victims of anti-Japanese bias.

Many of the dolphins are butchered for food, but campaigners claim there is insufficient demand for their relatively unpopular meat to make the hunt economically worthwhile.

They charge that the high prices live animals fetch when sold to aquariums and dolphin shows is the only thing that sustains the hunt.

Despite the overwhelming vote last week by JAZA to abandon the Taiji hunt, five aquariums are reportedly considering leaving the organisation so they can continue to source dolphins from the town.

However, the vote has left aquariums with the problem of how to continue to stock their facilities—only 12 to 13% of dolphins at Japanese aquariums are captive-bred, compared with 70% in the United States, according to JAZA.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/taiji-fishermen-vow-to-continue-dolphin-slaughter

"Professor in 'The Cove' sues film firms, claiming editing was arbitrary"

More about The Cove from today's Japan Today:

A professor who appeared in the Oscar-winning U.S. documentary "The Cove" about dolphin hunting in Japan has filed a lawsuit against a film right holder and distributor, claiming that his comments were edited arbitrarily and his reputation was thereby damaged.

The first hearing of the case filed by Tetsuya Endo, associate professor of the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, was held at the Tokyo District Court.

Endo is also seeking a total of 11 million yen in compensation from Medallion Media Co, a Tokyo-based company that holds the film rights in Japan, and the distributor, Tokyo-based Unplugged Inc, and demanding that the scenes in which he appears be removed.

“The Cove,” which shows dolphin hunting in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, partly with hidden cameras, won the 2010 Academy Award for best documentary.

According to the complaint by Endo, he was introduced by a fellow researcher abroad to the director of the film, Louie Psihoyos, and asked by him in February 2007 to appear in his documentary concerning mercury contamination of marine life.

Endo claimed the director interviewed him without explaining at all about his intention to criticize dolphin hunting based on particular ideas and values.

"The film is extremely subjective and unscientific," the associate professor stated, adding the director’s act "destroys the credibility of a scientist who is noted for his objectivity."

In reference to the scene in which Endo was holding in his hand the meat of a dolphin from Taiji, he argued that the director arbitrarily inserted into the scene a caption saying mercury was detected in the meat, even though he was explaining about another dolphin.

The director, who is a photographer and founder of a marine life conservation group, alleges in the film that a large quantity of mercury is contained in dolphin meat.

Medallion said that an official in charge was not available, while Unplugged responded that it will refrain from making comments while the case is proceeding.

Read the story and reader comments at Japan Today:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/professor-in-the-cove-sues-film-firms-claiming-editing-was-arbitrary

"Ric O’Barry and his group to return to Taiji to oppose dolphin hunt"

From Japan Today, 8/26/12:

 Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project will return to Taiji, the town made infamous by the Academy Award-winning documentary “The Cove,” for the beginning of the six month-long dolphin slaughter season on Sept 1. 

 “Our Dolphin Project Team and I are returning to Taiji once again to oppose the killing of dolphins and to warn the people of Japan about the dangers of eating mercury-contaminated dolphin meat,” O’Barry, director of Earth Island Institute’s Dolphin Project, said in a statement to media. “The hunts must end, and the people of Japan will be the ones to end the hunts.” 

“We have made some progress; the number of dolphins being killed in Taiji has gone down for the past four years of our Save Japan Dolphins Campaign,” noted O’Barry. “The Japanese people, being warned about mercury and other contaminants in dolphin and whale meat, are buying less and less of it.” 

 Beginning at 11 a.m. on Sept 1, representatives from five continents will arrive at the Cove in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, to conduct a series of events to mark the new dolphin slaughter season. Participants will form a circle for a moment of silence for the souls of the dolphins that have been killed in the past and will be killed in the coming season. 

The prayer will also honor the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, as well as those who lost their lives in Wakayama Prefecture during typhoons. 

Participants will line the street in front of the Cove with signs in Japanese warning the Japanese people that dolphin meat is poisoned by mercury.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/ric-obarry-and-his-group-to-return-to-taiji-to-oppose-dolphin-hunt

 Click here for previous VAOJ coverage about The Cove.

 

A WHALE OF A TALE, lecture and screening by documentary filmmaker Megumi Sasaki

Image borrowed from http://awhaleofatalefilm.com/

Announcement from SSJ Forum:

Overview:

The issue of commercial whaling in Japan remains a contentious issue, as animal rights activists engage cultural traditionalists on the historical roots of this practice and its contemporary relevance. For this event the documentary filmmaker Megumi Sasaki will screen excerpts from her film “A Whale of a Tale,” and discuss the controversies surrounding this topic.

About the film “A Whale of a Tale”:

Can a small town with a proud 400-year-old whaling tradition survive a tsunami of modern environmental activism? The camera delves into the lives of local whalers, global activists and an American journalist in the “whale and dolphin killing town” of Taiji, Japan, revealing not everything is as black and white as it seems.

In 2010, Taiji, a sleepy fishing town in southern Japan, suddenly wakes up in the global spotlight. A documentary film called The Cove, which denounces the town’s longstanding whale and dolphin hunting practices, has just won an Academy Award. Almost overnight, the town of Taiji has morphed into a battleground as the go-to destination for international activists.

Jay Alabaster, a Tokyo-based Associated Press journalist and twenty-year Japan resident, is sent to Taiji to cover the controversy. He is warned by his boss to “be careful in the dangerous town”, which triggers the sense that something is not quite right with media reports surrounding Taiji.

As the fall hunting season begins, anti-whale and dolphin hunting activists arrive from abroad with binoculars and cameras in hand. Their mission: To expose the “atrocities” committed in Taiji via the web.

Every time dolphins are captured in the hunt, tension in the cove grows. Activists yell and thrust cameras in whalers’ faces. Local police and the Coast Guard stand by. Camera crews arrive in droves. A Japanese nationalist van harasses activists over a loudspeaker.

For the local whalers, hunting is their livelihood, pride and identity. Catching whales and dolphins – as they do other fish - has allowed them to feed their families and support the town’s economy.

The activists fight back, saying the whales and dolphins are not fish, but intelligent mammals deserving special protection on a global scale. Hunting and eating them is barbaric, and selling them to aquariums is comparable to a slave trade.

Will Taiji survive under global pressure? Following the town’s fate for six years, A WHALE OF A TALE tells a story not yet heard in the global controversy of whale and dolphin hunting. Through the point-of-view of an American journalist, the film unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature and wildlife, raising questions about cultural sensitivity in the face of global activism.

Date: Thursday, September 14, 2017
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Venue: Temple University Japan Campus, Azabu Hall 1F Parliament
Admission: Free. Open to the public.
Language: English
RSVP: icas@tuj.temple.edu

See the YouTube clip:



Film web page: http://awhaleofatalefilm.com/

More: Japan Times article, 9/6/17:

Documentarian Megumi Sasaki hopes to bring balance to the story of Taiji in ‘A Whale of a Tale’

URL: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/09/06/films/documentarian-megumi-sasaki-hopes-bring-balance-story-taiji-whale-tale/

See the previous and extensive coverage of The Cove and related issues at VAOJ. Click here.

"Internet service company to show 'The Cove' in Japan "

More in the news today about The Cove...

An Internet service company will show “The Cove” free of charge Friday and invite public comment after theaters canceled screenings in Japan due to nationalist opposition to the film’s depiction of a dolphin hunt.

Niwango Inc, which shows streaming video on the Internet, said Thursday it’s inviting people to write opinions via Twitter and e-mail for an open exchange of views on the Oscar-winning documentary that shows the annual hunt in Taiji village.

About 20 theaters in Japan had planned to show the film but canceled, one by one, after protesters made threatening phone calls and screamed slogans outside the distributor’s offices.

Nationalists oppose the film as a denigration of Japanese culture. It has been shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival and other more private screenings but has not been seen by the Japanese public.

The film, which stars Ric O’Barry, 70, a former dolphin trainer for the “Flipper” TV series, shows a handful of fishermen in the small town of Taiji go out and herd a flock of dolphins in to a cove and spear them to death as they writhe in agony.

O’Barry, who is in Japan this week to speak about the film to universities and other select groupings, apologized for the secretive filming methods.

But he told The Associated Press that he plans to bring Hollywood stars, who support his cause, back to Taiji in September to make sure no dolphins are killed in this year’s hunt.

Read the story and reader comments at Japan Today:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/internet-service-company-to-show-the-cove-in-japan

Link to Niwango (in Japanese; you will have to set up an account with their service to see the film): http://www.nicovideo.jp/

"'The Cove' wins Oscar for Best Documentary"

The story continues...

From today's Japan Today:

"The Cove," a U.S. film about a controversial annual dolphin hunt at a Japanese town, won the best documentary feature at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday in Los Angeles.

Directed by Louie Psihoyos, one of the world’s most prominent still photographers, the film depicts, partly through the use of hidden cameras and microphones, the capture of dolphins by local fishermen in the whaling town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture.

After screenings in selected countries such as Japan, Australia and the United States, the documentary provoked criticism against the hunt, while local fishermen defended it as part of a Japanese tradition, saying the practice was not bloodthirsty as they built memorials for the dolphins.

Reacting to the Academy Award, fishermen in Taiji voiced anger, saying they were misleadingly described as "Japanese mafia." A senior official of the local fisheries cooperative association rejected an interview, saying, "Whatever we might say, it will just help advertise the movie."

Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen said, "Dolphin hunting is not an illegal activity. It is necessary to respect each culture’s diet, based on an understanding of regional traditions."

Negotiations are under way with a distributor in Japan, although no release date has been set yet.

Story and comments:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/the-cove-wins-oscar-for-best-documentary

"Dolphin hunt film canceled in Tokyo after protests "

More stuff about The Cove. Sound familiar? Memories of Yasakuni spring to mind...

From Japan Today, 6/4/10:

A movie theater in Tokyo decided against showing the dolphin-hunt documentary “The Cove” after nationalist pressure and warnings of protests, the distributor said Thursday.

In recent months, activists have protested and screamed slogans outside the Tokyo office of the Japanese distributor, Unplugged, alleging that support for the film signals betrayal of Japanese pride.

Theater N Shibuya was scheduled to start showing the film June 26. Unplugged said the theater changed its mind after getting deluged with angry telephone calls and being warned that screenings would be met with protests.

The American movie that won the Academy Award for documentary this year shows undercover footage of the dolphin hunt in a Japanese village and documents efforts by Ric O’Barry, a former trainer for the “Flipper” TV series, to stop the slaughter of dolphins for food.

Takeshi Kato of Unplugged said he remained determined to show the film, and talks will continue with other theaters.

“This is definitely not an anti-Japanese film,” he said in a statement. “We believe it is necessary to carry out constructive discussion of the issue.”

Read the whole story:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/dolphin-hunt-film-canceled-in-tokyo-after-protests

"No drop in orders for Taiji dolphins despite restriction"

VAOJ grows weary in its continuing reporting of "The Cove" related news. But here's the latest...

From The Japan Times, 8/11/15:

Orders for dolphins caught in drive hunts in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, this fiscal year are coming in at almost the same rate as before even though the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums has banned its members from buying animals caught via such methods.

A local fishermen’s union said Monday that the orders are mostly coming in from facilities that are not members of JAZA and dealers who may be exporting the dolphins.

Feel free to read the whole story at the source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/08/11/national/taiji-moratorium-means-aquariums-may-reducing-dolphin-shows/#.VcsZ-kVZG2w