Activists pressure Japan on whaling

TOKYO - Junichi Sato winced when he recalled opening the reeking box of whale meat - all 50 pounds of it.

Sato and fellow Greenpeace activist Toru Suzuki had tracked the package to a mail depot in northern Japan after tipsters told them it contained whale meat bound for the country's black market. It was smuggled by crew members of a ship that have been commissioned to kill the mammals for scientific research, not profit.

But when they held a news conference last spring to turn the meat over to police, the officers instead arrested the activists for trespass and theft.

That put them at the center of a bitter face-off between environmentalists and the Japanese government, which many believe wants to punish the pair severely as a warning to citizens who question the country's controversial whaling policy.

Japanese officials say the men - dubbed the Tokyo Two - are ecoterrorists who stole the meat from a legitimate transporter to falsely malign the nation's whaling establishment. The pair could receive up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

"These men have been painted as heroes," said Joji Morishita, consulate for the Japanese government's powerful Fisheries Agency, which sponsors the whale hunts. "They're not heroes."

The case has shifted the front lines of the war over Japan's whaling program from the frigid waters off Antarctica, where 100 whales are culled by Japan each winter, to the streets of Tokyo and the court of public opinion.

It also is a rare occurrence of Japanese taking the lead in protesting their government's environmental policies. In a culture where demonstrations are rare and a premium is put on polite public discourse, Sato and Suzuki's actions have raised eyebrows.

"Usually it's Australians, Americans, or British taking action, not the Japanese themselves," said Keiko Hirata, a political scientist at California State University, Northridge, who specializes in Japanese foreign policy.

Japanese officials say they are the target of emotional propaganda.

"What would the Americans say if India suddenly said they should stop eating beef because the cow is special to their culture?" Morishita asked. "That is what is happening to us."

Polls show that 56 percent of Japanese approve of eating whale meat.