Reports

JTEF and its office in Iriomote Island: Yamaneko Patrol published a report on reducing levels of tourist visitation and strengthening the traffic management measures designed to reduce road fatalities of Iriomote cats. It aims to review the Japanese government’s report on its response to the World Heritage Committee’s decision. This report concluded that setting a specific allowable limit of the number of tourists to Iriomote Island which is to be considerably less than the one before Covid-19 pandemic is essential from the perspective of both reducing levels of tourist visitation and prevention of road fatalities of Iriomote cats. It was submitted to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that is responsible for examining the response of Japanese government…

TOKYO (February 28, 2022)— The Standing Committee (SC) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is going to discuss “Closure of Domestic Ivory Markets” at its 74th meeting on 7-11 March in Lyon. The working document prepared for discussion includes reports submitted by 10 countries/regions, including Japan, a non-elephant range state which maintains a legal domestic market at a time when many leading consumer nations have closed their markets to protect elephants from the threat of poaching to supply the ivory trade. The Government of Japan (GoJ) insists that “Japan has been implementing stringent measures to ensure that its domestic ivory market is not contributing to poaching or illegal trade”; however, a…

Tokyo, Japan – June 30, 2021 Tokyo, Japan – July 1, 2021 A report is released today by the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF): “Dark Side of the Everlasting Tortoiseshell-Crafting in Japan”. The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is one of the seven species of sea turtles and is listed as “Critically Endangered” (CR) in the IUCN Red List. One of the major threats to hawksbills is illegal take for the purpose of commercial trade in its tortoiseshell; used exclusively as a raw material for crafts called “bekko zaiku (crafts)” in Japan. Japan was famously the world’s largest country importing tortoiseshell. All populations of hawksbill turtles were listed in Appendix I of the “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species…

May 31, 2021 TOKYO—WWF, TRAFFIC and Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF) released today a report: ”SHELL SHOCKED: JAPAN’S ROLE IN THE ILLEGAL TORTOISESHELL TRADE”. It reveals that recently the tortoiseshell of hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), has been increasingly smuggled into Japan. This active market in Japan of tortoiseshell crafts, called “Bekko craft” is contributing to the illegal international trade. Hawksbill turtles are one of the seven species of marine turtles and are listed as “Critically Endangered” (CR) in the IUCN Red List, After World War II, Japan grew to be the largest country importing tortoiseshell equivalent to tens of thousands of hawksbills every year. Japan bowed to international pressure and officially stopped importing hawksbill tortoiseshell in 1993, when more…