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OE1  News Report

2010.5.18.Tue

19210059 Junna Saito

1. MLM CITATION

I chose an article from the New York Times website about Japan’s

mind about Whaling, because this is our cultural problem.

May 17, 2010, ANDREW C.REVKIN, the New York Times

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/is-japan-seeing-

internal-shift-on-whaling/?scp=3&sq=Japan&st=cse

2. Original Article

This is direct copy from the site. The words/phrases I have chosen

are in bold and underlined.

Is Japan Seeing Internal Shift on


Whaling?

The closing line of Martin Fackler’s weekend article about fading

passion for whalin in a Japanese whaling town is stark and telling:


“Japan doesn’t like being told what to do,” said Isao Kondo, 83, who

retired near here after a career as a manager at the Japan Whaling

Company, now defunct. “But like it or not, whaling is dying.”

I had my doubts when the Oscar-winning director of “ The Cove,” the

searing documentary on Japan’s annual slaughter of dolphins, told

me he was confident that Japan’s policy on whale hunts could be

changed under rising pressure from within triggered in part by outside

pressure — a force called gaiatsu in Japanese.

But in conversations with some Japanese diplomats who sought me

out after reading my posts on the film, there was a clear sense that

the Japanese government was trying to gauge American views on its

whaling efforts, perhaps recognizing that its ongoing investment in,

and aggressive defense of, whale hunts was creating a significant

branding problem, at the very least.

The rest of The Times article is well worth reading. Here’s a

particularly valuable section that capture’s Japan’s dilemma:

The Japanese government is facing renewed pressures at home and

abroad to drastically scale back its so-called research whaling. Yet,


Tokyo seems paralyzed by the same combination of nationalist

passions and entrenched bureaucratic interests that have

previously blocked any action to limit the three-decade-old whaling

program.

The story posits that Japan’s whaling institute may be propped up

almost as much to secure jobs for former ministry officials as for

sustaining whale stocks:

A study last year by the Democratic Party showed that the Institute of

Cetacean Research, a ministry-controlled agency that oversees the

research whaling program, reserves jobs for at least five former

ministry officials, including one earning an annual salary of more than

$130,000.

While the current government has sworn to go after bloated

programs, there are some members of the ruling Democratic Party

who still support the country’s whale hunts. In the story, Tadamasa

Kodaira, a lawmaker heading the pro-whaling bloc, says the Sea

Shepherd Conservation Society, which has repeatedly harassed


Japan’s whaling fleet when it is killing whales in international waters,

has made its own task tougher:

“We can’t change now because it would look like giving in,” said Mr.

Kodaira, a lawmaker from the northern island of Hokkaido. “Will we

have to give up tuna next?”

My guess is Carl Safina, Barbara Block and Sylvia Earle would love to

see that.

3. Summary フォームの

Whaling means catching and eating whales and dolphins.

Environmentalists say it is cruel thing, but eating dolphins is

common culture in some place in Japan, and come to whales, it

used to be eaten on school lunch! This is the crash of opinion. In

Japan, among government, the opinion is divided.

4. Analysis

I think it is very complex problem...but I wish whaling is understood

by the world, even if it would limited, because it is cultural and

historical action. In the world, there is a place where dogs are eaten,

and more. On this chance, we should know cultural differences

about diets.

5. Words and Phrases


・fading: disappearing gradually

Ex) Motivation of students is fading.

・stark: unpleasantly clear and impossible to avoid


Ex) We are facing with a stark choice.

・telling: have a great or important effect


Ex) The news is surprising and very telling.

・dying: ongoing to death


Ex) The association with neighbors among people living in the city

is dying.

・slaughter : to kill animals, especially for its meat


Ex) A lot of cows are slaughtered every day in order to human’s

lives.

・sought out(seek out): to try to find something, and get it.


Ex) He had sought out his own way of life for a long time, and

finally, he find out his answer.

・gauge: to judge how people feel about something or what they


are likely to do

Ex) It is difficult to gauge what the other party’s next move will

be.

・paralyzed by: unable to think clearly or deal with a situation


Ex) He stood paralyzed for a moment, and then ran away.

・entrenched:strongly established and not likely to change


Ex) Racial discrimination is entrenched by today.

・bureaucratic: involving a lot of complicated official rules and


processes

Ex) The long history of bureaucratic politics made a lot of empty

building of roads

6. Questions

・What do you think Sea Shepherd’s violence action whose

purpose is to stop catching whales?

・What do you think the result of this Whaling problem is?

フォームの終わり

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