If Japan slow to ban ivory trade, online shops even slower

Because the United States recently shut down its domestic ivory market and China is close to doing so, many countries and animal conservationists are closely watching how Japan, one of the largest ivory markets in the world, will react. | REUTERS

By Daisuke Kikuchi
Staff Writer

Aug 15, 2016

Elephant ivory has long been used worldwide to make a host of items from jewelry, piano keys and billiard balls to art and personal seals.

Japan, which used ivory to make hanko (personal seals), was one of the biggest importers in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing in about 950 tons annually in 1983 and 1984. But as the African elephant population plunged, international trade was banned in 1990, leaving room only for domestic trade.

Despite the international trade ban, however, illegal trade continues and poaching is rampant, leaving African elephants on the red list of vulnerable species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

IVORY TRADE

If Japan slow to ban ivory trade, online shops even slower

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