Passing through Enemy Waters: Marine Turtles in Japan

Abstract

PASSING THROUGH ENEMY WATERS: MARINE TURTLES IN JAPAN Margaret Dupreet I. INTRODUCTION When the Environment Agency was created in 1971 under the office of the Prime Minister, its primary considerations did not include the management, conservation, or protection of wild- life species. Rather, the Environment Agency had the immediate task of instituting measures to control industrial pollution, which had been poisoning the Japanese people and their food re- sources. Indeed, people had suffered dearly when industrial de- velopment forged a new economy. Poisoning from arsenic, lead, and cadmium as well as an outbreak of various pulmonary dis- eases associated with air pollution became the subjects for the big four pollution cases.' Years later, while poison victims con- tinue litigation to seek compensation in court, pollution control technologies have been put into place, and Japanese companies have decreased the outpouring of domestic industrial pollution. The Environment Agency has apparantly succeeded in its initial task. Action in today's Environment Agency seems to indicate that domestic wildlife protection is of growing importance in Ja- pan. For example, the Wild Animal Protection Division was cre- ated in 1986. Although their tasks are various and numerous, the offices tend to be understaffed. 4 Despite its effort to address t Attorney-at-Law. This article is based upon research conducted during 1993-1994 when the author was a visiting scholar at the International Center for Comparative Law and Politics, at the Faculty of Law, The University of Tokyo, Ja- pan. The author wishes to thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the National Science Foundation for sponsorship and funding of the research. JULIAN GRESSER ET AL., ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN JAPAN 29-30 (1981). 2. Id. at 41-42. 3. Id. at 29. 4. The Wildlife Protection Division conducts surveys of domestic threatened fauna and flora and conducts programs to rehabilitate some endangered popula- tions. Rehabilitative efforts have thusfar included an artificial breeding program for the Japanese Crested Ibis and habitat improvement programs for the Iriomote Wild- cat, the Short-tailed Albatross, Blakiston's Fish-owl and Japanese Crane. Also, the