People of Taiji

Most people in Japan are not aware of this tragic event that occurs in their country. Even more surprising is that many people of Taiji are not educated that this horrific tragedy is going on in their own town.

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Taiji mayor speaking about the dolphin drive hunt during an interview

 Taiji mayor Kazutaka Sangen defends the Japanese dolphin drive hunt: "We have fishermen in our community and they are exercising their fishing rights, we feel that we need to protect our residents against the criticisms."

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Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has said that the dolphin hunt is a historical tradition and a culture practice but majority of the Japanese people do not even want to buy dolphin meat anymore because of the highly traced mercury in it.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

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The fishermen along with the government has been arguing that one of the reasons why these hunts occur is because they are in competition with the fish and squid and they hunt and slaughter the dolphins as a means of ‘pest control’.

Yoko Ono’s Response to this treachery 

Japanese artist and peace activist

“Future of Japan,”

“I understand how you must feel about the one-sidedness of the West to be angry at your traditional capture and slaughter of dolphins, think of this situation from the point-of-view of the big picture, [the hunt is damaging the reputation of Japan] and will give an excuse for big countries and their children in China, India and Russia to speak ill of Japan.”

“To the people of Taiji,”

 “I am sure that it is not easy, but please consider the safety of the future of Japan, surrounded by many powerful countries which are always looking for the chance to weaken the power of our country. The future of Japan and its safety depends on many situations, but what you do with dolphins now can create a very bad relationship with the whole world.”