The minister responds to yacht racer Giovanni Soldini’s open letter to daily newspaper La Stampa on whale hunting in Japan.
Dear Mr. Soldini,
I am profoundly convinced that there is no serious justification now, nor has there been in recent years, for the practice of whale hunting. While the international court of justice’s recent ruling on Japan’s programme was a relief, I am also concerned about the Tokyo government’s announcement of its intention to present a new research project as justification for resumption of the slaughter next year.
Faced with this prospect, I will certainly not fail to intensify my contacts with the head of Japanese diplomacy, Fumio Kishida, who has displayed a sensitivity to the matter that differs from that of other colleagues in the government. In January, our ambassador in Tokyo, Domenico Giorgi, directly involved Japanese Minister for Fishing Yoshimasa Hayashi, and in mid-April confronted the issue with the prefecture of Wakayama, one of the most active of Japan’s whaling centres.
Despite Japan’s weak economic excuses and claims of defending a tradition, along with Norway and Iceland, when we speak about the definitive prohibition of whale hunting we are, in reality, struggling to assert a more harmonious relationship between man and nature. This is the point, and this will be our aim.
