Japanese earthquake recovery money going to whaling
Billions of pounds earmarked for the reconstruction of areas of Japan devastated by last year's earthquake and tsunami have been diverted to projects with connection to the recovery work, such as whaling research
An investigation by NHK, Japan's national broadcaster, has revealed that substantial portions of the Y19 trillion (£150.2 billion) that is being raised by tax increases and government spending cuts between 2011 and 2015 are going to promote the whaling industry Photo: ALAMY
By Julian Ryall, Tokyo
11:49AM BST 25 Sep 2012
An investigation by NHK, Japan's national broadcaster, has revealed that substantial portions of the Y19 trillion (£150.2 billion) that is being raised by tax increases and government spending cuts between 2011 and 2015 are going to promote the whaling industry, to train prison inmates and even to fund nuclear research.
The report comes as companies in the regions hardest-hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake complain that they have yet to receive more than 60 per cent of the subsidies that were promised by the national and prefectural government to get their businesses up and running again.
The ministry that overseas Japan's "research whaling" – condemned internationally as thinly disguised commercial whaling – defended the allocation of Y2.28 billion (£18 million) on the grounds that it would help the economies of coastal communities recover from the disaster.
Similarly, the Ministry of Justice said the Y28 million (£221,434) that it received would go towards vocational training for inmates in prisons in two prefectures to ensure they did not reoffend. Neither of the regions – Hokkaido and Saitama – are located in the disaster zone.
In Okinawa, the most southerly of Japan's prefectures, a further Y500 million (£3.95 million) is being spent on a sea wall that the contractor admitted to NHK was "not really an essential project."
An exchange project that was scrapped by the Foreign Ministry last year has also been resuscitated with Y7.2 billion (£56.9 million) in taxpayers' money so that students from countries in the Asia-Pacific region can travel to Japan to enjoy Japanese culture. Two extra days in the Tohoku region have been added to the original programme.
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has also benefited from the reconstruction budget to the tune of Y4.2 billion (£33.2 million) to conduct research into nuclear fusion on the grounds that promoting technology will support reconstruction, the agency told the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper.
To date, Y202 billion (£1.6 billion) has been approved for small businesses in the three prefectures worst affected by the disaster, although a mere Y77.9 billion (£615.8 million) has been distributed so far.
