A Japanese diver who signed up to travel and work aboard a Sea Shepherd (the renowned, independent ocean conservation society) boat told a local magazine that, initially, she was apprehensive because of her nationality. Coming from a nation that does continuous battle with ocean conservationists, she was afraid that whatever contribution she made would be viewed with skepticism by the rest of the crew. (It turned out that she had nothing to fear.)
Since time immemorial the Japanese have taken much from the sea and given precious little in return. The traditional, unspoken attitude is that we're an island nation with few natural resources — the ocean is there to serve and feed us and that pretty much describes its raison d'e^tre.
A case in point are the blowfish restaurants scattered throughout major cities in Japan. These restaurants often display barely alive blowfish crammed in glass tanks of full of gray water.