ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-JAPAN: ‘Banned’ Tiger Products Sold Openly

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 5 1998 (IPS) - Conservationists have just presented new, damning evidence of the continued sale of tiger parts in Japan, despite Tokyo’s claims that it has long banned trade in such products.

Japan became a signatory to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1980. With the exception of the Siberian subspecies, all tigers are listed in the Appendix I of the Convention, making international trade in the animals or any of its parts prohibited.

According to the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), which is in charge of wildlife trade in the country, Japan has honoured that ban in the past 18 years. “What is available now are products that were made before 1980,” says a MITI official who declined to be named.

But just last week, activists released copies of a videotape that showed major Japanese traditional medicine stores selling products that had tiger parts.

This, they said, showed that the products were still able to enter the country and that a ban not just on international trade but on local sales was badly needed.

All the store owners on tape said a ready supply was available and that products were coming from China on a regular basis.

Japan is actually the world’s largest market for tiger products. The prices they fetch here are much higher than in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and China — places where Asian traditional medicine, which uses tiger parts, are more widely practised.

In one segment of the “tiger trade” video shown to reporters here, a Japanese shopkeeper says a whole tiger bone, which he calls the animal’s “best parts”, could be had for 100,000 yen or 800 dollars.

Whole tiger penises wrapped in cellophane containers go for 140,000 yen (1,200 dollars).

“The sale of these products is not banned in Japan, a situation that contributes heavily to the extinction of the world’s tiger population that is the most endangered in the world,” says Debbie Banks, campaigner for the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

“If Japan clamps down, then it will be a major step in preserving wild tigers,” she adds.

There are no more than 5,000 wild tigers left in the world. Destruction of habitat, loss of prey and the lucrative international trade of its body parts are threatening the dwindling population some more.

Japanese laws ban trade in products that are clearly tiger parts such as the animal’s nails, claws and skin. But activists point to a legal loophole — products that contain crushed bone or penis of the animal, as well as derivatives of other endangered species, can come in without problems.

The video taken by activists proves this. Carrying hidden cameras, activists entered 26 pharmacies on major streets of Tokyo and Yokohama on two occasions in 1995 and 1997 and recorded the sale of products such as wines, powders, and pills that contain tiger bone and penis.

At that time, prices for tiger wine containing penis sold at the popular Seibu department store were between 10,000 yen (80 dollars) and 8,000 yen (60 dollars) per bottle. Shop assistants explained that the wine contained tiger penis, believed to enhance virility in male customers.

Powders containing the same tiger part were sold at Akahige, a major chain store selling traditional medicine, as were tiger bone pills said to ease rheumatism.

“The products could be fake, but they were sold as genuine, which is of great concern,” says Banks. Telephone surveys conducted by EIA at random also showed that 46 percent of Chinese medicine stores in Japan confirmed they sold tiger products.

Banks notes that labels usually contain details on “how much tiger” there is in the products. Thus, she argues, detection should not really be a problem and that “sellers must be prosecuted”.

Other activists cite the example of Britain, where the police carried out a crackdown on Chinese medicine stores in London and confiscated tiger products. An awareness campaign by the police on the extinction of tigers also helped to drive the trade underground and reduce sales significantly.

Says Banks: “We are not asking for much. A similar campaign conducted by the Japanese police will be of much help.”

She adds that even China, Taiwan and South Korea have taken steps much better than Japan to stop the trade. Taiwan, for example, has a wildlife police force.

The head of the Indian Tiger Reserves, P K Sen, has also sent a special appeal to the Japanese people through Banks. In the appeal, Sen asks that Japan “enact legislation to stop the trade in tiger parts immediately.”

Banks was recently in India, which is home to 3,000 of the world’s 5,000 tigers.

Conservationists say they are hopeful the anti-tiger trade campaign will not be ignored much longer by Tokyo, which has often succumbed to international pressure on wildlife protection.

In 1990, Japan was forced to ban ivory imports after years of criticism, even though the illegal trade was contained only much later. The country stopped imports of turtle shell, highly prized among the Japanese, following a conservationist campaign.

Still, activists say Japan now seems to be ready to restart ivory imports from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe that have reported increases in elephant populations.

During their investigation on the tiger trade, EIA campaigners also found bear gall bladder, rhino horn, snakes, lizards, monkey hand and monkey head, deer antler, sea horse, seal penis, wolf penis, turtles, insects and even a whole whale fetus being sold in local stores.

The Japanese government, defending trade in such products, has said conservation must be sustainable and traditional culture and industries that rely on these goods must be protected.

A MITI official also says the ministry has to clear thousands of requests from businessmen who want to import wildlife on special permits. He says MITI simply cannot look into each product that comes in.