(Agence France Press)
Japan reprimands officials for taking whale meat
TOKYO - THE Japanese fisheries agency has warned officials not to accept whale meat as gifts from whalers, amid embezzlement allegations involving tax-funded whaling programmes, reports said on Wednesday.
The five officials were reprimanded for accepting three to 7kg of meat from a private fisheries firm that was contracted to conduct whaling, local media reported, citing agency sources.
The packages of whale meat were estimated to be worth US$180 (S$236) to US$840, Jiji Press said, adding that one of the officials later returned the meat.
Officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
The reports came as activist group Greenpeace presses Tokyo to probe claims that whalers, politicians and officials have illegally taken meat from Japan's tax-funded whaling projects in an embezzlement-like scheme.
Japan hunts whales for what it calls scientific purposes, using a loophole to a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows lethal research. -- AFP
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