Protests against Japan's continuing violation of the international ban on whaling seem to have had little affect on Japan. The country continues to allow hunting of whales under the guise of "scientific" research. Most of the whales from these "science" expeditions seem to end up on Japanese dinner plates. However, there is something that the Japanese are highly sensitive to as was clearly illustrated by the head of Toyota in his pilgrimage to the US to apologize for defects in his company's products. Whaling is a very tiny part of Japan's GNP. If consumers refused to buy Japanese and let the Japanese know why they were doing it, almost certainly the Japanese would suddenly decide that these whaling "research" expeditions were no longer necessary. Such a boycott would not have to be on a large scale. Even a drop of just one percent in Japan's overseas sales would eclipse the value of all whales taken by Japan each year. Money talks and the Japanese have shown they are most adept at listening to money.
