Via Fark, National Geographic reports that Japan's fishing companies are getting out of the whaling business:
I've said before that it makes no sense for Japan to catch more whales than its people want to eat. It's picking a diplomatic fight for no reason. And yet even now, with private industry clearly repudiating the economics of whaling, Japan shows no sign of changing course:
Nissui, Japan's second largest marine products company, and four other firms jointly owned whaling company Kyodo Senpaku. This business operated the six-ship whaling fleet on behalf of the Institute of Cetacean Research under the authority of the Japanese government.Whaling will still continue in Japan, but the whaling fleet and catch processing will be handled by the government.
All five firms say they will "soon donate" their shareholdings in Kyodo Senpaku to public organizations, including the government-backed research institute.
The Japanese government, meanwhile, vowed to press on with its controversial annual whale hunt.
I've said before that it makes no sense for Japan to catch more whales than its people want to eat. It's picking a diplomatic fight for no reason. And yet even now, with private industry clearly repudiating the economics of whaling, Japan shows no sign of changing course:
The Japanese government, however, says whale meat carries great cultural significance among the nation's people.Of course, if the Japanese people really "backed" whaling, they'd be eating enough whale meat to keep private firms in the business. But they're not. Instead, the government is using PR campaigns to get them to eat more of it. A nation's true culture wouldn't have to be literally forced down its people's throats.
..."The transfer of the shares in the whaling firm will not affect our policies at all," Hideki Moronuki, an official in charge of whaling for Japan's Fisheries Agency, told the AFP news agency.
"Rather, we welcome the move," Moronuki said. "From now on, whaling will be regarded as something backed by all of Japan, not just a particular group in the private sector."
I've been pushing the "find a cure for market failure by creating private proprty rights in oceans resources so we have responsible resource use" meme long enough that I am discouraged that all the Japanese whalers want to bale out.
But what the heck is going on when the government wants to continue whaling at a loss even when no private whalers want to continue??
I had been thinking that given the clear loss to Japan's international image and goodwill caused by its hard-line, in your face whaling position, and its willingness to subsidize the practice, that this must be a case of "regulatory capture" by the whaling/fishing industry. But the desire of the whalers to quit clearly puts the lie to that, so we're left with a purely governmental decision - which is an apparent loser all around. Makes me wonder just who is running Japan's whaling and foreign policy.
I can understand the frustration of whoever had been investing money in bribing Caribbean countries to vote Japan's way at the recent IWC meetings at seeing the investment go down the drain, but it's not only a clear waste of taxpayers' money to continue the campaign, but another example of the sunk-cost fallacy at work. Are there just a bunch of grumpy old bureaucrats who can stand being told what to do by foreign countries and private industry?
One imagines the efforts the bureacrats must have been making to keep private industry involved, if only to save the bureacrats face. I wonder what motivated the decision by the whalers? - I can hardly expect they were under any meaningful consumer pressure, or cared much for international public opinion.
Something good could come from continued investment if the purpose was to establish a meaningful, sustainable harvesting regime that could then be rolled out to other fisheries, but there is no indication that such is part of any long-term agenda.
Only in Japan, it seems, could the government turn an obvious diplomatic gold into lead.
Hey, GB, you wanna get into a government-subsidizes business that seems wide open to foreigners? We could start a foundation or something ...
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