Wildlife advocates are bitterly disappointed by international
conglomerate SoftBank Corp's refusal to ban ads for ivory, whale and dolphin on its company Yahoo! Japan.
This follows an approach by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Humane Society Intl.to SoftBank, urging it to direct Yahoo! Japan to join all other Yahoo! websites worldwide in banning the sale of these products.
Today Yahoo! Japan lists almost 8,000 ads for elephant ivory (which have tripled since Amazon and Google removed all ads for elephant ivory and whale products from their Japanese shopping sites). Around 80% of the ivory ads are for hanko (name seals used to sign official
documents), made from illicit ivory tusks smuggled into Japan from Africa.
Yahoo! Japan also offers 249 whale products (including sashimi, bacon and canned whale meat), from internationally protected species like fin whales illegally killed in Iceland, minke from the Antarctic whale sanctuary as well as Bryde's, sei and sperm whales killed in the NW Pacific. Other ads feature products from mammals brutally killed in Taiji in Japan, made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.
Yahoo! Japan is the top dog in SoftBank's internet division, making nearly US$4 billion in 2012, and naturally Softcorp wants to expand it internationally. But along with that expansion comes a broader social responsibility.
Amazon listened to the concerns of the global village last year.
Yahoo! Japan would do well to heed their concerns also...
conglomerate SoftBank Corp's refusal to ban ads for ivory, whale and dolphin on its company Yahoo! Japan.This follows an approach by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Humane Society Intl.to SoftBank, urging it to direct Yahoo! Japan to join all other Yahoo! websites worldwide in banning the sale of these products.
Today Yahoo! Japan lists almost 8,000 ads for elephant ivory (which have tripled since Amazon and Google removed all ads for elephant ivory and whale products from their Japanese shopping sites). Around 80% of the ivory ads are for hanko (name seals used to sign official
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| Dolphin for dinner? |
Yahoo! Japan also offers 249 whale products (including sashimi, bacon and canned whale meat), from internationally protected species like fin whales illegally killed in Iceland, minke from the Antarctic whale sanctuary as well as Bryde's, sei and sperm whales killed in the NW Pacific. Other ads feature products from mammals brutally killed in Taiji in Japan, made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.
Yahoo! Japan is the top dog in SoftBank's internet division, making nearly US$4 billion in 2012, and naturally Softcorp wants to expand it internationally. But along with that expansion comes a broader social responsibility.
Amazon listened to the concerns of the global village last year.
Yahoo! Japan would do well to heed their concerns also...
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