Japanese official defends 'cockroach' remark on whales

Japan Policy & Politics, July 23, 2001

LONDON, July 19 Kyodo

A senior Japanese fishery official on Wednesday defended a remark he made describing minke whales as ''the cockroaches of the sea.''

Masayuki Komatsu, a counselor at the Fisheries Agency, said the description was meant to show that it is illogical for anti-whaling countries to campaign for protection of minke whales while ignoring the fact that there are 760,000 of them in the Antarctic Ocean.

Komatsu called minke whales ''the cockroaches of the sea'' in a recent interview with an Australian television station. The remark sparked a barrage of protests, particularly in New Zealand, one of the anti-whaling nations.

''I have repeatedly referred to the comparison in the past two or three years. I feel some malice by those who have protested against the remark, given the timing of their action,'' said Komatsu, who is in London for the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that has been in session since July 3.

Komatsu denied news reports that he had acknowledged that Japan has used official development assistance (ODA) to influence Caribbean nations in whaling policy.

''What I said was ODA is one tool to have Japan's principles and views understood,'' he said.

The reports intentionally refrained from citing the fact that Japan provides a larger amount of ODA to anti-whaling countries, he said.

Earlier Wednesday in Tokyo, the Fisheries Agency defended Komatsu's remark, saying the comparison to cockroaches was intended to illustrate that minke whales are highly fertile.

The intent of the remark is that minke whales have strong fertility and are not facing any danger of extinction, said Shiro Yuge, a councilor at the agency.