Bijdrage delegatie voor Japan over de walvis­jacht

Anja Hazekamp (PvdD): Thank you chair. Dear ambassador Kodama, I would like to welcome you in Strasbourg and Brussels as the new Japan-EU Ambassador. With your predecessor, Mr Shiojiri, I often discussed the issue of Japanese whaling. Unfortunately these discussions did not yet help to stop whaling carried out by your country.

In July of this year I proposed to draft a resolution in the European Parliament on this issue. A large majority of the European Parliament then called on Japan to stop its whaling activities.

I would like to ask the ambassador what the status is of the current whaling program Newrep-A. Is Japan continuing this program, despite the calls from the European Parliament to stop whaling activities?

A further question to the ambassador, yesterday a proposal in the International Whaling Commission to create a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary was rejected by a minority.

Could the ambassador explain why Japan voted against this proposal? Isn't it in everyone's interest that whales are not further driven towards extinction? Were there for Japan concrete obstacles in creating a Whale Sanctuary? And how could these obstacles be taken away?