David @ Tokyo

Greenpeace's Japan arm has made some claims about opinion in Japan on whaling in their press release on the commencement of the JARPA II voyage.

They refer to a survey commissioned by them, which "showed that ... more than 70 % of Japanese do NOT support whaling in the Southern Ocean".

That's a creative way to express the results of the survey, because what was actually found in response to the main question of "do you support or oppose the resumption of commercial whaling" (page 4) was that

• only 26% of respondents were opposed (i.e., more than 70% were NOT opposed)
  
• 35% were in favour
• 39% were neutral
  

Having pointed that out, it's worth noting that the survey itself notes that the sampling methodology used involved selecting respondents from people registered in an Internet based "Cyber Panel", and that the results "are not necessarily representative of the whole population of Japan" (my translation, from page 2).

The strongest opposition to whaling was observed amongst university students, and the survey concludes in it's summary that (my translation, from page 7):

Amongst younger respondents, while there was a tendency to be opposed to a resumption in commercial whaling, respondents were not knowledgeable about whale environments or Japan's whaling, let alone aware of international decisions made by the IWC.

It could be said that opinions amongst younger respondents against a resumption in commercial whaling are by no means based on sufficient knowledge of whaling.

Greenpeace didn't quote that bit in their press release, either.

The survey naturally contained some leading questions, including references to the increasing stockpile levels, but making no mention of the increases in consumption and supply which are at play there.

I can but trust that going forward Greenpeace Japan will endeavour to provide the Japanese public with more complete information about whaling.

Labels: Greenpeace, Whaling