Japanese turn backs on whaling: Greenpeace survey

MORE than two thirds of Japanese people do not support their country's whaling in the Southern Ocean, a survey reveals.

And 87 per cent of the Japanese population were surprised to learn their tax money was being used to subsidise the increasingly-unpopular whaling operation.

The survey, commissioned by Greenpeace, found that while 31 per cent of people backed whaling, 25 per cent opposed it and 44 per cent had no opinion on the issue.

The figures were more stark when it came to whaling on the "high seas", as opposed to coastal whaling, which is viewed with nostalgia by many Japanese.

More than 70 per cent of the Japanese surveyed disagreed with high seas whaling.

Even among those people who said they supported whaling, 40 per cent were against the high seas operation.

Greenpeace Australia whale campaigner Rob Nicoll said the results of the survey differed markedly from those in a recent poll by a Japanese newspaper.

"While (that) poll seemed to find the majority of Japanese people support whaling, they failed to distinguish high seas whaling from coastal whaling, which has a nationalistic and romantic traditional notion for many," Mr Nicoll said.

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Reuters 8 Feb 08;