Press Conference by the Deputy Press Secretary, 7 January 2010

Sea Shepherd Incident
COP10 Nagoya
Hosting of the 4th Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting
Questions concerning the Sea Shepherd Incident
Questions concerning Foreign Minister Okada's possible visit to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Question concerning discussion between Japan and the United States on the future of the Japan-US Alliance
Follow-up questions concerning the Sea Shepherd Incident

Sea Shepherd Incident

Deputy Press Secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura: Good afternoon and Happy New Year to you.

I have three announcements at the beginning.

First, the case of the Sea Shepherd boat. Yesterday, January 6, from around 3 a.m. Japan time, the Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd boat, employed a series of sabotage and disturbance acts, including throwing ropes, launching balls containing butyric acid, irradiating laser beams, sudden approaches, and blocking, against a Japanese whaling boat. Then just after noon, at around 12:30 pm, the collision occurred. The series of the sabotage acts taken by Sea Shepherd were very dangerous acts, which would risk the life and safety of the Japanese crew members. These acts should be strongly condemned.

I underline that the collision took place at the end of the incessant and continued dangerous disturbance acts taken by the Sea Shepherd boat. Japan made a protest to the New Zealand Government about the collision, as we did also to Australia and Holland in the similar context in the past.

COP10 Nagoya

Mr. Kawamura: The Second is COP10Nagoya. As you may recall, Japan will host the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the so-called COP10, from October 11 to 29 this year in Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture. Yesterday the Government of Japan submitted its proposal on the post-2010 Diversity Targets to the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat in Toronto. You have a copy of the proposal for your reference.

Japan's proposal has three main pillars: (i) a mid- and long-term target by 2050, which is to enhance the harmony between human beings and nature and to improve the state of diversity from the current level; (ii) a short-term target by 2020, which is to take steps so as to halt biodiversity loss; and (iii) means to achieve the targets and numerical indicators. Japan as the chair of COP10 hopes this proposal will contribute to the furtherance of the ongoing preparatory works toward the October Nagoya COP10 conference.

Related Information (Environment)

Hosting of the 4th Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting

Mr. Kawamura: Third and last is about Japan’s hosting of the 4th Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The 4th FEALAC Foreign Minister's Meeting will be held in Tokyo this year on January 16-17. FEALAC is an international organization comprising a total of 33 countries - 15 countries from Asia and 18 countries from Latin America. At the meeting we plan to review the activities in FEALAC over the past 10 years and discuss the issues concerning the environment and sustainable development, the global financial crisis, and economic disparity improvement.

That is all from me. I would like to invite your questions now.

Questions concerning the Sea Shepherd Incident

Q: Regarding the Sea Shepherd incident, earlier today, a representative of the Fisheries Agency was asked if he might classify this act as piracy, and he said that they were thinking of having more discussion about that. What kind of international body would Japan appeal to, or who governs this internationally in terms of maritime law?

Mr. Kawamura: There must be an international body which governs maritime navigation. So if this incident should be classified as a collision between Boat A and Boat B, then it would be natural to imagine that the existing international law and regulations must be considered for application. From the whaling issue side, as you can recall the International Whaling Commission (IWC) should be the body to discuss the whaling issue itself. I guess this incident might indicate that the issue has some mixed elements to be considered, so we need to see more clearly and deeply how we shall respond. Anyway, a collision took place, and as I said before, this should be condemned, because it risked the lives of the crew members.

Q: Is Japan considering labeling it as piracy?

Mr. Kawamura: At this exact moment I don’t have the right answer to your question. We will look into the matter.

Q: Does Japan plan any further steps, for example appealing as you mentioned for the international court in Geneva who is ruling this kind of collisions on the sea, or does Japan plan anything to take steps to not only protest but to take some legal steps for example. You are saying that it is a sabotage, so...

Mr. Kawamura: In this context, what is most important is that our international partners, including New Zealand, Australia, and other IWC participants, should understand what happened, and that this is dangerous for the safety of the crew members. Those partner countries should agree that this kind of dangerous rampage should be avoided in the coming months. I think there is no disagreement among parties that the issue of whaling should be discussed at the international fora, such as the International Whaling Commission. This is the most important target for actions now.

Q: But the answers from Australia and New Zealand were that they have a different view on all this.

Mr. Kawamura: Just for correction, yesterday and today we spoke to the New Zealand Government.

Q: What was the reaction? As far as I know they have a different kind of view on this collision, so how can you come together and discuss this?

Mr. Kawamura: Our ambassador to New Zealand explained the situation and requested the avoidance of the recurrence of the incident. We think we had a good communication with the New Zealand Government and we should continue our discussions. We just delivered our message to the New Zealand Government.

Q: Just to follow up on those partners, New Zealand and Australia, they have announced that they are going to be sending scientific research ships to the Antarctic to prove that scientific research can be conducted without capturing and killing whales. Depending on the results of their research, would that affect Japan's policy toward whaling?

Mr. Kawamura: I have read the news report about those countries' reactions, but as I said before the issue of whaling should be discussed in the international fora, such as the IWC, so we will look forward to continuously working with those partner countries in the forum. The scientific research activities to be initiated by those countries, as you just mentioned, might be their decisions, but in the course of discussions at the international body we will continue to cooperate and discuss how the issue should be addressed.

Q: It is very general, but as for this whaling, it seems to be quite clear that criticism of Japan's even research hunting is expanding, and it is getting more media interest these days. How is this expansion or escalation of criticism affecting Japan's possible decision to maybe cut down the quota or maybe even change its policy toward whaling?

Mr. Kawamura: First of all I must tell you that diplomacy is not an easy job, and each country represents different national interests, therefore diplomacy should work and function as expected. You mentioned the international criticism against Japanese whaling. In order to get a good understanding from our international partners on the issue of whaling we will continue to do our best in the IWC, or in the bilateral context.

Q: The Australian Government this morning has said that it has instructed its Maritime Safety Agency to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances of yesterday's collision. Can you tell me whether Japan accepts that Australia has jurisdiction to conduct such an inquiry, and whether Japan will cooperate in such an inquiry?

Mr. Kawamura: Can I get back to your question, because I don’t have the right materials to respond to your question here.

Q: Can I ask a follow up question? On a number of occasions the Fisheries Agency and now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have called for Australia and New Zealand to take measures to control the activities of Sea Shepherd. What measures do you actually suggest that they should take?

Mr. Kawamura: The point here is how we should secure the safety of the navigation and the crew members. There could be various ways to realize that, and I think it relies on the decisions of each country, because there are some differences in the legal systems and operations and possible measures that would be employed to protect the crew members, and so on. So I think it is up to those countries which measures should be employed.

Q: Has there been any contact between the Japanese Government and the Australian Government on this issue since the collision yesterday?

Mr. Kawamura: I need to check that and get back to you.

Q: It is the first time that the Japanese side has sent two patrol vessels to help the whaling fleet, to secure them, while not official patrol vessels, but two additional boats to help secure the whaling fleet. Was that a good idea? Was this idea a success? How would you estimate that?

Mr. Kawamura: I am not in a position to comment on whether this is the first time or not, but the bottom line is that the life and safety of the crew members of the Japanese ship were threatened by the nature conservationists acts in the past, so the Japanese Government should employ possible measures to protect their safety.

Q: Do you think these boats are such a menace?

Mr. Kawamura: I am not in the right position to comment on the role of each boat, but we have planned to do research whaling, but at the same time we have to protect the crew members from assault.

Q: Exactly how many ships are there in the Japanese whaling expedition fleet?

Mr. Kawamura: Sorry, I cannot comment on how many.

Q: A more general question: Who in the Government or in the society is the driving force for research whaling? What would you say? Is it the Fisheries Agency, or is it really the will of the people? Who do you think is the driving force behind that?

Mr. Kawamura: In terms of governmental administration I think the Fisheries Agency is the primary responsible government agency for whaling for research purposes.

Q: And are they really pushing forward to say that they really have to do that, and are there other agencies or other ministries who say, "Oh, perhaps we have to think about if this is the right way"? Is there a discussion going on?

Mr. Kawamura: I am not quite certain about the other agencies role in whaling, however we have every legal right to conduct whaling research so we will continue, and there is a need to do that.

Q: For instance, in the case of Somalia, Japan is dispatching the Japan Self-Defense Force to basically protect the Japanese national ships, and in this case it is very hard to classify this as a piracy act, as my colleague asked, but what is the limit of actions that Japan can take for the safety of Japanese nationals on board boats?

Mr. Kawamura: It is a very technical question, so I need to check the existing laws and regulations which would govern the measures that the Government could take and collect them together, so we need to do a little bit more research on that.

Questions concerning Foreign Minister Okada's possible visit to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Q: It is a totally different topic, but is Foreign Minister Okada planning to meet with Secretary of State Clinton?

Mr. Kawamura: There are various press reports already about the Foreign Minister's possible visit to the United States, but my reply is that we are still coordinating the possibilities of his visit, and it is in the final phase. The result will come out in due course.

Q: Will he come with a proposal he can present to Ms. Clinton?

Mr. Kawamura: Before jumping onto that topic I think we should wait for the outcome of the current ongoing coordination works for the Ministerial communications between the two countries.

Question concerning discussion between Japan and the United States on the future of the Japan-US Alliance

Q: There have been reports that Japan and the United States have agreed to start talks on their bilateral alliance which was already agreed between President Obama and Prime Minister Hatoyama in November. What would be the significance of moving toward the talks on bilateral alliance without any clear prospects on settling the row over the Futenma issue?

Mr. Kawamura: I would like to point out that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Japan-US security arrangement, and it is the right time for both leaders to discuss the next 30 or 50 years of the alliance, by facing the global challenges, and this exercise is already agreed on the level of the top leaders. It is on the agenda already. The Futenma issue is a slightly different category. Both sides are doing their best to find the reasonable and acceptable conclusions.

Follow-up questions concerning the Sea Shepherd Incident

Q: About the protest made to New Zealand, that protest was made through the ambassador to New Zealand to whom?

Mr. Kawamura: Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand Mr. Takahashi made the protest to Mr. Banks, the Deputy Vice Minister of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Q: When was that?

Mr. Kawamura: That was on the 7th, today. But just for your information, prior to this claim, we communicated with New Zealand, Australia and Holland, not in a specific way, by pointing out Ady Gil's activities, and so forth, but in general terms, Sea Shepherd's further dangerous obstruction must be avoided, and we requested those countries to take appropriate measures to prevent the recurrence of the violence on the sea.

Q: Sorry, when was that?

Mr. Kawamura: From around October through December, occasionally we conveyed that message.

Q: What was their reaction each time you have conveyed that to them?

Mr. Kawamura: We understand that they took note.

Q: Did they promise any action?

Mr. Kawamura: My sense is that we generally shared the same stance that violence must be avoided, and safety must be respected.

Q: For instance there was a similar incident last year, and in yesterday's incident no-one was injured, but if this had escalated into someone dying during the collision then it would have taken it to a whole different level.

Mr. Kawamura: That is why we are urging those countries to cooperate to avoid such an outcome.

Q: Right, but speculating that it could escalate into something more serious has the Australian or New Zealand Government responded to these requests by the Japanese Government?

Mr. Kawamura: We are hopeful. Anyway, we need to closely communicate with them and avoid the recurrence of such an incident.

Q: Kyodo: Could you elaborate more on the protest made on the 7th, did Japan just convey that it condemns the acts? Was there anything else expressed?

Mr. Kawamura: Ambassador Takahashi explained how this incident happened, and made a protest regarding the incident, and expressed that it must be avoided in the future.

Q: Have you in any way complained to the Australian side about them continuing to allow Sea Shepherd to use Australian port facilities.

Mr. Kawamura: I am not sure whether our representatives made such a request in a very specific way, pointing out a certain port or whatever, but the bottom line of the message is that appropriate measures should be employed by the Australian Government to avoid such an incident.

Q: Just for clarification, on the 7th Ambassador Takahashi did not ask for appropriate measures this time, he just made an explanation, because you said that in the protests made between October and December Japan called for them to take appropriate measures to prevent such recurrence, but this time he did not go into that issue? He just...

Mr. Kawamura: I need to get back to you after checking in more detail, but my understanding is that of course, yes, it also included the request for the employment of appropriate measures to avoid the recurrence.

Q: Is there any concern on Japan's behalf that this could escalate into some kind of diplomatic problem?

Mr. Kawamura: We want to avoid such an escalation in any way. As I have said, the issue of whaling should be discussed in a reasonable manner in the international fora with our partners. Violence must be avoided, and violence will not contribute to the final solution of the issue.

If there are no further questions, thank you very much for your attendance and questions. I hope you all have a good new year.

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