Japan accuses Watson of being co-responsible for damage and injuries inside a Japanese whaling ship in 2010
The Japanese Government regretted Denmark’s decision to refuse extradition to Japan and to release American-Canadian whale defender Paul Watson, detained in July in Greenland.
“It is regrettable that the Danish Government did not accept the extradition request” from Tokyo, and Japan “made this known to the Danish side”, said Japanese Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Japan accuses Watson of being co-responsible for the damage and injuries inside a Japanese whaling ship in 2010, as part of a campaign launched by the environmental association Sea Shepherd.
The 74-year-old activist was arrested in Nuuk, capital of the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, on July 21, after Japan reiterated an arrest request issued in 2012, via an Interpol red notice.
Watson was detained when he was piloting a vessel, called John Paul DeJoria (the name of an American billionaire), to intercept a new Japanese whaling factory ship.
Denmark refused extradition due to the “full duration of Paul Franklin Watson’s detention following his arrest on 21 July 2024 and until a possible extradition decision can be enforced”.
According to the decision, cited by the France-Presse news agency, the Danish Government also highlighted “the fact that the acts for which extradition is requested date back more than 14 years, as well as the nature of the acts in general”.
In October, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya assured that Watson’s extradition request was a matter of “law enforcement” and not defense of whaling.
Whaling has been the subject of a moratorium since 1986, but it is contested by Japan, Iceland and Norway, which kill around 1,200 whales annually, according to the International Whaling Commission.
On December 5, Iceland authorized two whalers to continue whaling for the next five years, allowing the annual hunt of 426 animals per season, from mid-June to September.
In 2023, Iceland had suspended whaling for two months, following a government inquiry that found the methods employed flouted animal welfare laws.
