Straining ties

The Toyota recall incident, The Okinawa military base dispute and American support of the ban on international trade of blufin is straining ties between the US and Japan. Some believe that there will be a resurgence of Japan Bashing. From my own perspective, I can see how some people would interpret a damaged relationship with programs like whale wars which depict American conversationalist waging war against illegal Japanese whalers on TV.
Japan consumes about 75% of the worlds annual blufin catch and claims that it will not comply with the bluefin tuna ban. From Japan’s position they feel as if they have already taking steps to protect the bluefin population. The support of America on the proposed ban has backed Japan into a corner. According to a bluefin wholesaler in Japan “I feel that what happened with Okinawa and with Toyota is being extended to the tuna issue as well. It is just Japan-bashing.” According to an article from the Washington post “fish wholesalers agreed that global restrictions in the bluefin catch make sense, when they are based on academic data. But they said there is no way Japan can go along with a blufin ban.
Despite how American support of the ban is interpreted, there is a large body of evidence that points to a severe decline in the blufin population. And the ban is one way to address this problem. The only alternative solution posed by the Japanese government is that they feel that a different organization (other than cites) known as Iccat should manage the protection of the bluefin population.

Adam Konder

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/world/20tuna.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030500612.html?hpid=moreheadlines

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/fears-rise-about-a-return-of-japan-bashing/article1483437/