One of the most controversial elements of Japan's campaign to overturn the International Whaling Commission's 1986 commercial whaling ban is the alleged use of official Overseas Development Aid to "buy" the votes of poorer IWC member-countries. That is an allegation vehemently denied by fisheries bureaucrats. Here, for example, is Joji Morishita, the Fisheries Agency's director for international negotiations:
"We reject that accusation. We send overseas aid to more than 160 countries, including many antiwhaling countries in the developed world. This is government money and is not connected to political issues."
So what explains the stunning switch in the IWC's balance of forces: from being overwhelmingly conservationist at the time of the moratorium in 1986 (31:10) to last year's historic majority (32:33) in the prowhalers' favor at St. Kitts?