SAITAMA (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the previous president of a gross sales firm in Soka City and three members of his household for promoting ivory, the commerce of which is regulated by the Washington Convention and different treaties, reviews NHK (June 4).
According to police, Nobumasa Daigo, the 58-year-old former president of Daigo Ivory Store, falsely labeling the merchandise as “mammoth tusks,” which aren’t topic to authorized restrictions.
Between 2022 and the 12 months earlier than final, the 4 suspects are alleged to have falsely labeled ivory merchandise and offered them for a complete of simply over 120,000 yen on an web public sale website.
In addition, though the corporate was a “registered business” that dealt with ivory merchandise, it is usually suspected of not making a “record sheet” that’s required when processing ivory.
During questioning, the entire suspects admitted to violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act. Daigo said, “I thought it was just like littering a cigarette.”
He went on, “Auction sites are often seen by customers, so they sell well. To avoid having the listings cancelled, we sold them under labels such as ‘mammoth.’ We made about 100 million yen a year.”
Daigo and his accomplices are believed to have manufactured the ivory merchandise in a workshop in Soka.
The firm made no less than 190 million yen on public sale websites. Police are persevering with the investigation, believing the suspects engaged in repeated unlawful transactions.
Japan’s ivory market and mammoth tusks
According to the Ministry of the Environment, mammoth tusks are related in high quality to ivory. When processed, they’re very tough to tell apart.
Elephants are designated as internationally endangered wild animals. As a outcome, worldwide commerce and the import and export of ivory has been prohibited in precept since 1990 below the Washington Convention.
However, in Japan, home buying and selling is barely permitted for companies which have been registered upfront. Buying and promoting is permitted provided that the tusks are managed in accordance with authorized rules, akin to registering manufacturing and gross sales companies with the federal government and creating administration tables.
The goal is ivory and processed merchandise that have been legally imported prior to now. According to the Ministry of the Environment, no less than 740 tons of legally imported ivory is assumed to have been processed into seals, ornaments and different gadgets and offered.
In addition, mammoth tusks, which have the same materials to ivory and should not topic to authorized restrictions. They are imported as an alternative choice to ivory, which has resulted in lots of circumstances of ivory merchandise being offered as if they’re produced from mammoth tusks.
Masayuki Sakamoto, a lawyer and secretary common of the nonprofit group Tiger & Elephant Conservation Fund, stated, “Demand for ivory remains high in Asia, especially in China, and the legal market in Japan has ultimately become a breeding ground for illegal exports. It has been pointed out that mammoth tusks and ivory are similar and are serving as a cover for ivory smuggling, so the nature of regulations is being called into question.”