By Masayuki Sakamoto – Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund
Executive Summary
Japan’s ivory market is one of the largest legal domestic
markets open today, at a time when many other nations
are closing their markets to protect elephants from the
trade in their ivory tusks. is report reviews the topfive
reasons Japan needs to act urgently to align with the
global community and close its ivory market, including:
1. Japan’s legal ivory market is vulnerable to illegal export of ivory
2. There is limited implementation of strict punishment against recurring illegal domestic ivory trade
3. Japan has been legalizing and stockpiling whole tusks with unknown origin courtesy of the government’s promotion of tusk registration, regardless of rampant fraudulent registration
4. Ivory dealers are proactively taking steps to neutralize the regulations on the whole tusk registration system, which will be tightened in the near future, abusing the loophole of the law that mandates only whole tusks be registered
5. The increase of ivory demand and expansion of ivory market in the near future in Japan are likely
To Read the full report:
http://www.jtef.jp/document/IvoryReport2019_en.pdf