Rugby World Cup boycott? – Japan’s whaling return sparks rumblings of protests, with Tokyo Olympics also under threat
- Activists urge the world to put pressure on Japan by threatening to boycott its two biggest events
- Japan will resume commercial whaling in 2019 after 30 years of abiding by international rules
Activists are expecting calls for a boycott of Japan’s two biggest international sporting events – the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games – because of the country’s controversial decision to resume commercial whaling.
Notable figures such as British endurance swimmer and ocean conservationist Lewis Pugh and Dennis Hone – the man who helped deliver the 2012 Olympic Games in London – said Japan’s decision to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) may result in protests around the world.
Others on social media vowed to boycott both events and urged fans to follow suit.
“I suspect that with the Rugby World Cup being hosted in Japan next year, and the Olympic Games in 2020, they will now face even greater international and domestic pressure to stop whaling,” wrote Pugh, known as the “Edmund Hillary of swimming”.
Japan said it would defy the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling and its fleet would start operations in July 2019, two months before the Rugby World Cup kicks off.
The government’s chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said hunts would be confined to Japanese territorial waters. Japan was to inform the IWC by Monday, allowing the country to leave the body by June 30.
The South China Morning Post sought reaction from the Japan Rugby Football Union on the possibility of countries boycotting the September 20 to November 2 tournament but the body had yet to respond.
Hone, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority before the 2012 Games and then head of the London Development Legacy Corporation, wrote on Twitter that Japan’s whaling decision may impact on sponsors.