Japan to resume whaling shortly: Yomiuri reports

MARK COLVIN: Reports of the end of the Japanese whaling program appear to have been premature.

The Yomiuri newspaper in Tokyo says the government will announce the resumption of whaling very shortly.

Yomiuri says the centre-left government has decided that giving in to the militant Sea Shepherd organisation would be against the national interest.

That means this year's hunt will go ahead, and we can expect another round of confrontations in the ocean south of Australia.

Last season Sea Shepherd's harassing tactics saw the Japanese fleet retreat with just a fifth of its quota.

But this year the Japanese Government will boost the budget of the whaling program to protect crew members.

Our correspondent Mark Willacy joins me from Tokyo.

Mark, Japan's gone through a pretty awful year financially, economically, it seems like a strange time to spend a lot of money on whaling?

MARK WILLACY: That's right. We've had the triple disasters of the earthquake, the tsunami, then the nuclear meltdowns and that has added some very big bottom lines to Japan's deficit and its public debt.

So we've got a situation where, across the board, the Japanese government is trying to cut programs but now we're hearing from the Yomiuri Shimbun, the biggest newspaper, the biggest selling newspaper, in Japan, that the program will continue, that it will go ahead. And basically, as you alluded to in the introduction, this is about national pride.

The Japanese do not want to give in to Sea Shepherd, they don't want to bow to the threats and the obstruction they've seen on the high seas, they're going to keep face and they're going to ensure that whaling will survive.

MARK COLVIN: How much is it going to cost to send the whaling fleet out?

MARK WILLACY: That's a very good question. It's often treated as a bit of a state secret. We've been told all sorts of figures but we believe roughly around $40 million a year. And what we're hearing out of the Yomiuri newspaper today is that they're going to beef up safety measures for the whaling crews, and to do that they're going to inject 2 billion yen, or about $AU27 million into the whaling program.

What we also know is that the Japanese coastguard, though, has turned down a request to protect the whaling fleet. Apparently it doesn't think it can do that adequately and with enough authority in international waters. But, you know, if this report is right, we are going to see yet again more clashes this year in the Antarctic between Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whalers.

MARK COLVIN: Well the coastguard probably only has a jurisdiction within Japanese waters, what about the Japanese navy itself?

MARK WILLACY: There has been absolutely no mention of that all. Obviously Japan has a passivist constitution which restricts what its military does and where it goes and the activities it can engage in, so no mention at all about the navy. As I said, the coastguard was requested to go down and shadow the whaling fleet. It's running a mile from that; it's saying no we can't do it with any great effect, so it will not happen.

MARK COLVIN: Well they're spending millions on it, do they get much back?

MARK WILLACY: Look, according to some of the people who were involved in a review of the whaling program this year, no they don't.

I spoke a couple of months ago to one of the panel members who was reviewing this process her name was Hisa Anan. And she said, look, it's time to scrap this so-called scientific whaling program for a number of reasons. One, if we want to keep researching whales there are non-lethal ways of doing it, we don't have to kill them.

She also pointed out to me that there are growing stockpiles of whale meat, tonnes and tonnes of it sitting unwanted in industrial freezers around the country. No-one's eating it. Whale restaurants are popular with a certain demographic, generally older Japanese, but young people they won't touch it with a barge pole.

MARK COLVIN: Well if this is about saving face or national pride - whatever you want to call it - is it a popular move do you think?

MARK WILLACY: Look I think most Japanese don't engage in this debate at all. But one thing, given the disasters that have befallen Japan this year, with the tsunami, the nuclear meltdown, and the cost that is now being thrust upon the Japanese public, there could very well be a section of the population who thinks this is just over the top.

This is a program Japan doesn't need in a time of financial crisis when there are people without homes, there are communities that have been totally wiped out. That money, that whaling money could possibly be better spent on those sorts of programs.

That is probably what the Japanese government is going to now face, that sort of opposition to whaling.

MARK COLVIN: Thank you very much Mark.

Mark Willacy is our Tokyo correspondent.

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Kenya sweeps marathon / Akaba leads Japan with 5th-place finish - The Daily Yomiuri

Ken Marantz / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter

DAEGU, South Korea--Even a tumble late in the race couldn't slow down Edna Kiplagat. Even if it had, a gold medal for Kenya was all but a sure thing.

Kiplagat led Priscah Jeptoo and Sharon Cherop in a Kenyan sweep of the women's marathon, the opening event of the IAAF world championships here on a humid Saturday morning.

In a disappointing day, Japan's highest finisher, Yukiko Akaba, placed fifth.

Kiplagat, the 2010 New York City Marathon champion, led a team spurt that broke open a large pack at 33 kilometers, then pulled away from her compatriots with three kilometers to go on to win in 2 hours 28 minutes 43 seconds.

"At 33 kilometers, I tried to run at the front of the group and when I looked back two times, I found the group was not following me," Kiplagat said.

"I had in mind that if I pushed more and run as fast as I can, I might win the race."

Jeptoo finished second in 2:29:00, with Cherop holding off a late charge by Ethiopia's Bezunesh Bekele to take the bronze by seven seconds in 2:29.14 and complete the first ever marathon sweep at a world championships.

Akaba led Japan's contingent with a time of 2:29:35.

"A little bit more and I would have won a medal," said Akaba, who has the consolation of earning 10,000 dollars in prize money. "I was aiming for a medal, so it's disappointing.

"The spurt at 33 kilometers was much faster than I expected and I couldn't keep up."

Yoshimi Ozaki, the silver medalist at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, slogged home in 18th in 2:32:31.

"In Berlin, at 35 kilometers I still had plenty left, but this time I didn't have it," Ozaki said.

Azusa Nojiri, Ozaki's Daichi Seimei teammate who early on took over the pace-setting duties in the race, finished one place behind her in 2:33:42.

Remi Nakazato placed 10th in 2:30:52, while Mai Ito was 22nd in 2:35:16.

With plenty in reserve after a slow pace took the lead group through the halfway point in a pedestrian 1:16:46, the Kenyans turned the race into a three-woman showdown soon after the 35-kilometer mark.

All that needed to be decided was who got which medal--although an incident at the 38-kilometer water station nearly changed the dynamics.

Kiplagat, cutting in front of Cherop to get a water bottle, clipped her foot and tumbled hard to the ground.

"I didn't know if I was going to get up and pick it up again," said Kiplagat, a mother of two who is married to her coach. "I felt I was running good again. This was a surprise."

In an impressive act of team solidarity, Cherop turned back to make sure Kiplagat was alright.

"I was so annoyed because it was not my fault, but after seeing that my friend has fallen down, I had to slow down and wait for her," she said.

Meanwhile, in first-day action on the track, pole vaulter Daichi Sawano barely squeezed through qualifying, while two other Japan record-holders and national champions failed to make the cut in their events.

Sawano was one of five vaulters to tie for 12th place by clearing 5.50 meters on their first attempt--if just one had cleared the next height of 5.60, none of the others would have advanced.

Minori Hayakari failed to advance in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase after placing eighth in her heat in 10:05.34, while Masato Yokota's sixth-place finish in 1:47.60 in the first round of the men's 800 left him short of a semifinal berth.

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Evacuees want PM with vision - The Daily Yomiuri

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Victims in the disaster-hit region are eagerly awaiting the election of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's successor in the hope that the new prime minister will show leadership and a future vision for the region.

Five members of the Democratic Party of Japan kicked off their election campaigns Saturday after announcing their candidacies.

The disaster victims are placing high hopes on Kan's successor, as the current prime minister is generally considered to have failed to take proper measures in response to the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

"I don't want [the next prime minister] to seek immediate benefits. He should look 10 years, 100 years and 1,000 years into the future," said Hiromichi Shishido, 52.

Shishido is now taking refuge in rented accommodations in Motomiya, Fukushima Prefecture, as he had to evacuate from his house, located within a 20-kilometer-radius from the nuclear power plant. He complained about the measures taken by the Kan administration to deal with the nuclear crisis, saying, "[The administration] was too slow in making decisions."

Some victims complained about the current administration's failure to convey information to the public.

"I want the new administration to refrain from hiding the truth and convey accurate information," said Mihoko Oda, 44, from Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture.

She is taking refuge in Aizu-Wakamatsu in the prefecture with her 17-year-old son, a high school student, and 8-year-old son, a third-grader at a primary school. Her 48-year-old husband is living in Fukushima.

"If we can't return to our house, I want the government to say so explicitly. We could then move forward with our lives," she said.

Meanwhile, some people see few clear-cut differences in the policies of the candidates.

"They put aside policy debates, and just snuggle up to [former DPJ President Ichiro] Ozawa to win the votes [from Ozawa's group]," said Ikuro Okuda, 64, a shipbuilder in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. He is staying at a primary school gymnasium in Ishinomaki.

On Friday, a job-hunting seminar for people who hope to work in Fukushima was held in Minato Ward, Tokyo, under the sponsorship of the Fukushima prefectural government.

"As the number of tourists [visiting Aizu-Wakamatsu] has decreased, the city has become less vibrant. I want to work at a company in my hometown [Aizu-Wakamatsu], so I want the new prime minister to put a great deal of effort in the rehabilitation program," a 21-year-old student of Komazawa University said.

A 36-year-old man who is trying to find a better job through a Hello Work job-placement office in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, said the new prime minister must show strong leadership and ability to act.

Before the disaster, the man worked as a nonregular employee at a local office of Japan Post Service Co. in Otsuchicho, a town neighboring Kamaishi, but lost his job as the office was swept away by the tsunami. He currently is a part-time factory worker.

He thinks the Kan administration's reconstruction steps and its economic measures came too late. "I want [the new government] to introduce a system that increases employment," he said.

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Kan too preoccupied to stem yen's relentless rise - The Daily Yomiuri

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Even as the yen charged to a fresh postwar record high Friday and piled more pressure on the Japanese economy, the silence from outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his close aides was deafening.

Kan, who has admitted economic policies are not his forte, has left the task of dealing with the yen's appreciation since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster almost entirely with the Finance Ministry.

Even after the yen marked a record high of 75.95 yen in New York late Friday, topping the previous high of 76.25 yen posted March 17, the prime minister's official residence remained remarkably silent. Instead, the focus inside seemed to be more on the process of finding a successor to Kan as the nation's political leader.

Aides quoted the prime minister as saying he intends to "keep watching the situation" for the time being before deciding whether the government and the Bank of Japan should intervene in the markets again or launch further quantitative monetary easing.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, when asked at a press conference Friday about the response to the strengthening yen, said only the government will "watch the foreign exchange situation even more carefully."

Many officials close to Kan believe there is little Japan can do to rein in the yen, other than a market intervention and quantitative easing, because the yen's climb has been fueled by financial unrest in the United States and Europe, sources said.

However, even some of Kan's aides have wondered aloud whether the prime minister has lacked urgency when dealing with currency moves that are battering Japanese exporters.

"The prime minister can't afford to worry about that" because he is tied up with his pending resignation, one aide said. "The fact that investors are gobbling up the yen despite the political situation here shows just what bad shape the economies of the United States and Europe are in."

After the credit rating of long-term Japanese government bonds was downgraded in January, Kan caused an uproar when he admitted he was "out of touch with such things."

A source close to Kan said the prime minister's awareness of his ineptitude in handling economic policies had made him "less interested in currency woes than the nuclear crisis and energy policies."

Government inaction also reflects the fact that the administration of the lame-duck prime minister can hardly respond flexibly to fast-changing currency markets, according to analysts.

Discussions on the details of a third supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 likely will make no progress before a successor to Kan as prime minister is selected, they said.

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