CNN's Kyung Lah says, "few in Japan will even know the documentary was ever made."

Total rubbish... it has been on every news network tonight in Japan... watching it right now on NHK, and it was on Fuji TV earlier!

"few in Japan will even know the documentary was ever made."

unless of course someone posts it on Youtube..............

The Japanese are so stubborn and proud. They are never willing to admit to being wrong on anything and this has been shown repeatedly through history. Let's find something they value in Japan and destroy it so that they will get a taste of their own medicine. While we're at this, let all affected Asian countries kidnap millions of Japanese women and turn them into "comfort women" another issue the Japanese haven't apologized for either.

of course a Japanese company is not going to distribute this movie. Are you insane? What Japanese company wants to have demonstrations out side their stores? Japan is a country that doesn't like to look things in the eye. Things have to nice and pretty and things like this are always Misunderstandings about culture.etc etc. I think it says a lot that this movie is going to be shown in japan and the festival were not going to show this and that the government still do not tell the public about the risks if they eat this meat. Even NHK are heavily influenced by the government and are not going to be publicizing this movie,let alone the health risks to eating this meat. SADLY I WONT BE ABLE TO WATCH IT HERE.But will download it.

Can't help feeling that this report over-dramatizes today's screening, which I attended:

"After the screening, the cameras were promptly ejected from the theater’s property."

...Well the media and filmgoers were asked to leave at the end of the 30min Q&A BUT it had run overtime AND then the media decamped next door for a 1hr press conference. There was no sense of shutting out the media they were invited and catered for!

"But with no future screenings and no distributor in Japan, few in Japan will even know the documentary was ever made."

Louie Psihoyos said that discussions were going on with two potential Japanese distribution companies...

Many people in Japan don't know about this probably because dolphin meat is not that common. 20,000 dolphins cannot feed 120 million people; obviously Japanese are eating something else (beef, pork, chicken, ...)

I guess that, like whale meat, the number of people who are buying dolphin meat is few in number but they perhaps purchase a lot. Also, they might not even live in the cities but in the costal towns.

Such documentaries are good, but we should also be a bit realistic that the people who should see it will never want to see it.

Humane termination for animals is tolerated, but not these type of actions. I hunt wild game, but don't corral or torture the animal. In addition, I must apply for the right to hunt and have a limit. That is how I define humane.

I would Understand if it was the Japanese protesting these, but this Film is only trying to dictate peoples culture on what they should and should not eat and i think it is wrong the same argument was on about eating Dogs just what is wrong in eating the Dolphin??

Seeing as the Japanese minister has a point about which animals which cultures consider "cute" or "edible", it would be interesting if the report actually compared the cruelty of Japanese dolphin hunting to Alaskan moose hunting, or Canadian seal clubbing, or French goose force-feeding, or the abuse of many cattle and farm animals before the slaughter in any given Western country...

it may not be seen in Japan but the rest of the world will know what goes on. The movie was shown in the Caribbean as part of a Sea and Learn presentation, Sea and Learn is a month long group of presentations, field trips and classes sponsored by the Saba Marine group.

How courageous of the filmmakers to come up with a documentary film like "The Cove." I commend them for their tenacity and for their concern for one of the friendliest animals on earth. I would like to watch this film once it hits Swiss cinemas.

The world should be aware that dolphins are brutally killed en masse in Japan (and in other countries as well). It is just so wrong to slaughter these friendly, innocent animals, known for saving lives of man and other animals as well, in such a cruel way. They are hacked to death and are left to die slowly at the pier. Really a dolphin's worst nightmare.

Hope many people will watch "The Cove" and take action to save the dolphins.

Spell error

Bikuri = x

Bikkuri = o

Just tell the film Director to upload a condensed version of his film in Youtube. The Japanese audience will buzz it like lightning and the information will circulate in Japan.

The comment "few in Japan will even know the documentary was ever made" is completely untrue. It has been covered in the major newspapers in Japanese. It is quite unfortunate that CNN chose a Korean with little understanding of the Japanese language to be correspondent here. Most of her 'reporting' seems to be trying to dig up things to smear Japan. The ability to do some real reporting here would be quite helpful. Don't just rehash things that have been covered in great details in other places before.

I'm an English teacher living in Japan at the moment and I'm very upset reading about The Cove. I've just visited an aquarium in Endoshima, a coastal town outside Tokyo, where they also have a dolphin show which I watched and which was very charming to everybody watching from the packed arena – afterwards,Japanese children have their photo's taken with the performers ( dolphins) – if I would have copies of the documentary, I'll distribute them outside the aquarium to bring home the message of the horror of killing these intelligent animals.

I have seen The Cove twice and it has deeply moved me. It is a phenomenal documentary. I have heard comments about this film being an attack of Japanese culture and a form of racism, but honestly if you have not seen the film or done your research on these issues then you cannot make any judgments. This is a real problem and a threat to many dolphin species and the health of those that eat dolphin meat or are mistakenly eating dolphin mislabelled as whale meat. Also, this film is an eye-opener into the multimillion dollar dolphin industry where dolphins are kept in captivity for our entertainment. Dolphin captivity is one of the worst forms of animal cruelty and seriously affects the health of dolphins, but somehow millions of people still frequent dolphin shows and swim with dolphins in tanks or sea pens. It's too bad The Cove is only being shown once in Japan.

BRAVO CNN!

CNN correspondent Kyung Lah must feel proud being able to assist THE COVE filmmakers in bringing this issue to the public. Yasuhisa Kawamura, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claims is their tradition, but if there are rape and/or murders in other cultures will they agree to it because it is a TRADITION?! I suppose not!
This is an atrocious practice that must end!
Media entities like CNN should continue pressuring the Japanese government, the world needs to know; Japan needs to know the world is watching!

Keep in mind that there is a tradition of active hunting of whales in Japan that dates back to the 1600s and passive whaling before that. However, whaling is no longer the ritual entwined subsistence hunting done by ancient Japanese people. It's a business that today puts profits before the safety of consumers and health of marine ecosystems. This industry is not necessary for food security or economic prosperity in the second largest economy in the world (Japan).

There is a rotten history behind Japanese whaling that is unfortunately rarely mentioned by the media covering this issue. Most people don't realize that the first modern whaling company killed its first whale in 1900 (not so long ago) with a Norwegian gunner. Juro Oka toured the world and returned to Japan with whaling knowledge, tools and even foreign whalers to get his business started.

Japanese whalers were able to out-compete other nations becauase they used the meat as well as the oil. By the 1930s Japan was sailing its first factory ships down to Antarctica and already ignoring and violating international agreements regarding whaling. It was also storing up and selling this oil (to Germany) in preparation for war. Sure enough, whaling ships were commandeered and used for military purposes during WWII against the allied forces. Most of them were destroyed.

General MacArthur resurrected the dead industry in the aftermath of Japan's surrender in order to provide cheap protein to the Japanese people. The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was created and progressively the world began taking steps to protect whales while reducing or shutting down their own whaling fleets.

However, the Soviets and the Japanese continued to increase their take of whales. The International Whaling Commission was more of a whalers club and introduced the Blue Whale Unit of measurement for quotas which failed miserably and the Olympic whaling system which led to competing nations racing to kill as many whales as possible – largest to smallest as one species after another became more scarce.

Pirate whaling all over the world with ties to Japanese fisheries appeared. Private operations that did not report to the IWC or follow any regulations or quotas were being setup and run through subsidiary companies. The catch was destined for Japanese markets.

Quotas to protect individual species were objected to and voted against by Japan and a bloc of other pro-whaling nations. Despite a UN resolution for a halt to commercial whaling for 10 years, it took more than 3 attempts to establish the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling through the IWC thanks to Japan and the efforts of other pro-whaling nations. It would not have happened at all if not for the expansion of the IWC membership and influence of the United States.

Japan was basically forced to accept the moratorium or risk losing access to U.S. waters for fishing. Reagan was threatening to use the 1971 Pelly Amendment and the 1979 Packwood-Magnuson amendment to place sanctions on Japan but instead worked out a deal. Japan agreed to halt commercial whaling for access to Alaskan waters. Then as soon as the commercial moratorium went into effect, Japan emerged with a plan to continue killing whales for scientific research.

Since the moratorium Japan has continued to kill whales using a loophole in the ICRW that allows a participating nation to issue permits for a self determined quota of whales for scientific research. As a result, tens of thousands of whales have been slaughtered under the guise of science by this industry which is subsidized and otherwise protected by the Japanese government.

Dolphin drive hunts (small type coastal whaling) increased as coastal whaling (due to shrinking numbers of whales) decreased. Taiji, which has been a whaling shore station for centuries is the focus of The Cove but there are many other locations in Japan where dolphin hunting takes place. Up to 20,000 small cetaceans are taken in Japan's waters annually. The danger of mercury and other contaminants in dolphin meat has not deterred this industry from continuing to sell it to consumers. In fact, the industry has even served the meat in school lunches in order to expand the future market for whaling.

So the annual hunts continue. Japan hunts whales large and small whether they are endangered or not and many of them in areas designated as whale sanctuaries. The whaling nation contends that small cetaceans do not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Whaling Commission. Censorship of western media insulates the Japanese public from international protest even labeling opposition groups as racists or terrorists. Repeated attempts have been made to repeal the moratorium and Japan has threatened to leave the IWC. Despite over 75 years of violation and subversion of international agreements there seems to be no nation with the political will to get into a trade war with Japan over whaling. As Iran claims the world is culturally biased against its nuclear ambitions, Japan claims the world is culturally biased against its whaling industry. When it comes to this controversial issue, Japan is a rogue nation.

And I must also mention the manipulation and propaganda efforts from Japan's fisheries with bogus science, outright lies such as the "whales eat too much fish" argument, and bribes to developing nations in order to gain leverage in the IWC. Not to mention Japan also serves as the world market for whale products and regularly imports tons of endangered Fin whale meat from Iceland.

As a Japanese citizen and resident of the Wakayama prefecture where Taiji is located, I found the response of Government representative offensive. They are trying substitute the debate to be that of an attack on Japanese tradition, hiding the reality that it really is about the interest of few. While I admit that stakes of individuals involved are something that needs to be discusses, I cannot accept myself and my culture being used as a excuse for their practice.
If the issue is really about the tradition and culture, the film aught to be available to Japanese audience. Let Japanese people decide how their culture should be. Instead, they hide the film from the eyes of Japanese people. I am almost certain that they know that most people in Japan would be against dolphin hunting if they learn about it.
On a side note, I have asked people around me, who have lived in Wakayama for long time, some all their life. None of them have eaten (at least knowingly) dolphin meat. If the dolphin hunting in Taiji is a tradition, it must be very local one practiced by few.

I see the film-makers didn't see fit to provide a Japanese version of their official website.
Given this, it seems churlish to immediately blame racism, jingoism or whatever for poor distribution of their film within Japan.

If I were of a cynical frame of mind I'd suggest that it's almost as though they'd realized the publicity gained from stories like this would more than make up for lost ticket sales, so why chance it by doing something as silly as translate their website into Japanese where people might actually see it?

in response to Ken's comment, many 'whale' products are actually dolphin meat (or pilot whale and other toothed whales that are part of the dolphin family). We have documented a lot of products on sale in Japan which are labelled 'whale from Wakayama area' or whale from Sanriku area – these are dolphins and Dall's porpoises. Alot of the dolphin and porpoise is sold in Osaka, and in Kyushu – in Fukuoka, Saga etc. The hunting is practiced by few, but the meat is sold widely and not just in coastal hunting villages. And all the toothed whale and dolphins are polluted with high levels of mercury in the muscle/meat, and high levels of PCBs in the blubber. Its great to see that this issue is finally getting an airing on Japanese television networks – even if the reporting tends to be somewhat one-sided.

Great blog–thanks for the excellent coverage. Gives new meaning to . Praise is due to those who forced this one showing–seems to have taken great moral courage. Way to go Sundance for giving the award and to the international community for at least getting this film once in this country of origin.

In Tokyo you can go into just about any supermarket at certain times of the year and purchase whale meat. Research, sure everyone believes that. Most Japanese people have no idea that dolphin is consumed here, let alone killed for profit. If there are so many people in this world that think dolphin or whale shouldn't be consumed then the only to get the attention of Japanese people is stop buying Japanese goods. Everyone knows that Koreans are famous for eating dog, yet their products are not boycotted.

Honestly, who cares? It is dolphins being killed, oh well.....what of the thousands of humans killed each year? I care much more about what happens to humans than I do a fish.

Michael W..I need to get my bicycling shorts back from you..I left them in your basement the other day but you were not home when I went to collect them. Let me know when is a good time to "collect";)

Later buddy

Michael W makes a good point.

You can debate forever the legality or morality of killing whales or dolphins but at the end of the day.. how does this affect your life?

I find it more disturbing that we've become so desensitized to death amongst humans. People get so upset when a whale gets killed yet how many have ever even seen one? Meanwhile hundreds of people die unnecessarily each day. Let's get our priorities straight.

It's one thing to say that they have been doing it for centuries and cannot change but I'm sure back then they did not have the technology to kill as many at one time. In the past, they probably killed 1-2 whales, which would be enough for a village. Now with higher population and marketing to cities across the country, more whales must be killed to keep up with demand.

If one looks up the history of the North American passenger pigeon, there used to be billions of birds. And the people used to kill and eat them, but not all of them. Then once they started systematically killing them for market, the numbers dwindled and now they are extinct.

This is the systematic killing of dophins and whales. Unless something is dones to boycott the meat, there will always be a demand, which will fuel more killings and result in extinction.

fyi – deer are killed due to the fact that man has removed their natural predators. Although I do not condone the hunting of deers, if their numbers are not kept in check (and only by permission thru licensing), people will be overrun with deer.

So dolphins have more rights because they are "cute" or "more intelligent" than other animals? Seriously? Whales are just as smart as dolphins...oh, right, they aren't as cute, so they get to be dinner. Either we afford animals certain rights (all animals) or we don't. Either we harvest them for food in a humane manner (ALWAYS) or we don't. It is unethical to rationalize on a case-by-case basis the terrorizing of animals simply because we decide some are more worthy of preferential treatment.

And, btw - a dolphin is NOT a "fish" - it's a mammal - a highly evolved one, in fact.

One thing that is rarely mentioned in these debates is the fact that the dolphins and whales are wild animals. The Japanese Fisheries agency has no idea how many there are and yet sets pretty high catch quotas. The evidence is, from records of previous catches which have shown massive crashes in the numbers caught, that at least striped dolphins (which were Taiji's favourite species to catch originally) have been wiped out of one area of coastal Japan and seriously declined in the Taiji area. And yet a catch quota of striped dolphins, which is never reached, is given to the fishermen every year by the government.

Its not about cute / not cute for everyone. Each person has, and is entitled to have, their own opinion and reason for taking or not taking action against the dolphin hunts, but the fact is that one could oppose the whale and dolphin hunts on conservation, welfare or human health grounds – take your pick, but most people would agree that the hunts need to stop.