Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten world’s top online marketer of ivory, whale meat
Japan's Rakuten is world's top online marketer of elephant and whale products that are banned in most countries, conservationists charge
In a report released on Tuesday, the Britain-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Humane Society International (HSI) called on Japan's biggest online retailer to stop selling the items.
Rakuten’s ads are effectively as deadly as giving bullets to elephant poachers and harpoons to whalers
According to the groups, Rakuten's website carries more than 28,000 advertisements for elephant ivory and 1,200 for whale products.
Many of the whale products originated from species that had been protected since 1986 under the moratorium on commercial whaling established by the International Whaling Commission, the groups said in their report "Blood E-Commerce".
The species received the highest level of protection by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which prohibited international trade, the report said, adding: "Despite this, a number of companies were selling endangered fin whale imported from Iceland."
Fourteen of the products did not list the names of the species used, in violation of Japanese labelling laws, it said.
"We call on Rakuten subsidiaries in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Austria and elsewhere to urgently press Rakuten headquarters in Japan to ban all ads offering ivory and whale products," said Kitty Block, vice-president of HSI.