november 2007

Has anyone out there got any feelings on the scientific research practice of Whaling ? In Australia it gets a bit of airplay as we like whale watching and dont eat whales as part of our diet.

The Japanese have a "Research Program" where they kill a set amount of whales of various types each year under the guise of "Scientific" research. Most people think that they kill the whales to eat them and they are masquarading behind the scientific research to get around the international ban on whaling.

I would like "like minded" people to do some economic research of our own. You see in the political process people outside Japan do not vote in the Japanese elections therefore we have no political might at all. We lobby our politicians to assist however they are conflicted by trying to stop the whaling whilst maintaining the Japanese as a great trading partner so they wont do anything that is powerful enough to exert any real political pressure.

I do have an idea and I think the Gooruze at Gooruze have the expertise to have this idea get traction around the world if in fact anyone in the world wants it to get traction. My idea is to do some ECONOMIC and POLITICAL research of our own.

Here is the plan

Let us spread the word throughout the world for all people that want to see Whales remain as part of the Eco system to participate in this study. It will take a small amount of self sacrifice however it is not too great.

The objective of the study is to see how much economic pressure consumers can place on a large Japanese company and how long it will take that company to exert its considerable political influence on the Japanese Government to change the practice either by reducing it or stopping it.

The idea is quite simple and straight forward 

Toyota is the worlds leading car manufacturer and a significant Japanese company and contributor to the Japanese economy. Imagine the impact in Japan if we could spread the word to people that are planning to buy a vehicle to do one of two things

1. Do not buy a Toyota at all, buy a different brand of car; or

2 If you must buy a Toyota (they are great cars and I have had three of them) however your old car still has some life in it, delay the purchase of a new Toyota for 6 months.

If we can get this type of thought process out into the Blogoshere and chat rooms then the sales of Toyota will hopefully dip. If they fall by 1% in the first month and 3 % in the next and 5% in the next month this will have massive ramifications for Toyota. If they can fall by 10 - 15% imagine the discussions between the Toyota exectutives and the Japanese government and the Japanese people if the Toyota factory starts to feel the pressure and then the Toyota workers start to feel the pressure.

Whale meat I understand is quite expensive so it will not be the Toyota workers that are eating it. They will also then start to exert political ...