Vote Buying: Japan's strategy to secure a return to large-scale whaling

Japan's agenda within the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is self-evident - it wants a return to large-scale commercial whaling and is prepared to go to extreme lengths to achieve its goal. Unable to persuade the IWC to lift the current moratorium on commercial whaling Japan has, since the early 1990s, been openly operating a "vote consolidation operation"1 . The primary purpose of this operation is to recruit new member states to the IWC that will vote with Japan in favour of commercial whaling. By targeting poor developing countries and offering substantial sums of development aid in exchange for votes at the IWC, Japan has already secured the support of seven countries.

Six East Caribbean states, (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis), the Solomon Islands and most recently Guinea have all been successfully recruited and speak in favour of a resumption of commercial whaling and vote with Japan on all occasions.