Why only 20% of Japanese people vote in elections

1. The Japanese Foreign Minister, Masahiko Komura, on Japan’s renewed whaling effort after abandoning plans to hunt 50 humpback whales:

“Japan has its own culture as much as Australia does and since [whaling] involves public sentiment, it’s not an issue we can resolve by confusing each other using logic.”

2. Wow. Did the Japanese Foreign Minister just blame Japan’s whaling on the Japanese public?

3. I’ve lived in Japan for almost 2 years now, and I’ve met many many Japanese people, and I’ve asked many of them about how they feel about whaling and whale meat, and I’ve heard a fairly wide range of opinions on the matter — but I’ve never ever met a single Japanese person who feels that whaling is their divine right. In fact, most Japanese people that I’ve met don’t eat whale meat, doesn’t like the taste of whale meat, and quite frankly wouldn’t notice if whale meat just disappeared from menus and supermarket shelves. This, from another opinion piece in the Herald by Dr Kumi Kato of UoQ:

“The claim by the Japanese Government that whale meat is part of Japanese culture is true in that it existed in this small-scale, community-based coastal whaling similar to the hunts of indigenous groups such as the Makah and Inuit, but this is, in my opinion, clearly separate from the large-scale industrial whaling conducted on the high seas.

If the Government is seriously committed to the maintenance of cultural tradition, the priority would be on the sustainable livelihood practices of coastal community fisheries, which may include a very limited number of whale hunts. It is human arrogance to assume harvest of any natural resource as a right but, if an inherent cultural right is to be granted to anyone, it would be the coastal communities.”

4. I think it would be safe of me to say that the Japanese coastal communities never hunted in the Southern Ocean, since, you know, the Southern Ocean is a billion miles away.

5. On the other hand, every single Japanese person I’ve met hates their government, and hates their politicians. TV shows are created with the express purpose of inviting political representatives on so that powerful TV personalities and famous comedians can call them stupid. The rampant disregard of the political elite for the thoughts and welfare of their constituents is, well, feudal.

6. And when their own ministers show such incredible arrogance, who could blame them?

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