(1)   The Law for the Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (LCES):  control of domestic circulation of bear products and related problems

The Asian black bear and some populations of the brown bear are listed in Appendix I of CITES and are classified as species threatened with extinction under the LCES.  The circulation of their products is, therefore, the subject of legal control. However, the LCES is not applied to the bears that are  legally hunted inside Japan under the Hunting Law of Enforcement Regulation). In other words, any bears legally hunted in Japan can  be circulated freely inside the country without any legal control.  As a result, bear products imported into Japan without appropriate permits or certificates can be labelled as Japanese bear products and can also be circulated freely.

In addition to this problem, and probably more importantly, there may be a fundamental flaw in the LCES itself. The bear body parts which are the subject of control under LCES include only stuffed animals (the whole animal), specimens (the whole animal), fur (including fur products) and skin (including skin products) (See Table 4). The bear gall bladder and the relevant medicine derived from it enjoys the greatest demand of all bear products in Japan. Despite this, gall bladders are not the subject of any control.

As above, from the point of bear conservation, the current LCES has the following two major problems.

a)      It is not applied to bear products derived from animals hunted legally in Japan.

b) It is applied to only  limited body parts and products derived from bears.

A part of the Government Ordinance for implementation of LCES was amended last December (to take effect on 1 April 2000) and tiger bone, tiger penis and the products containing them to be consumed by people and derived from tigers became the subject of control at that time. According to the Environment Agency such derived products would include medicine, alcohol and certain types of health food. The authorities have been saying, however,  that readily recognising powdered body parts in medicines in Japan would be very difficult. This has been the main excuse why the medicine derived from bear gall bladder is not yet the subject of control under LCES.

(2) The Hunting Law (HL):  control of domestic circulation of bear products and related problems

The HL imposes restrictions on the domestic circulation of legally caught species that are not designated game species. That is, the circulation of such species is not allowed without the appropriate certificates issued by the prefectural governor. However, because bears are categorised as game species this regulation does not apply.

The HL can control the circulation of wildlife, including  game animals, if they are  hunted illegally.  However, it is obvious that HL restrictions cannot be imposed effectively to ban domestic circulation of  illegally obtained animals,  if there is no system to monitor domestic circulation of legally hunted animals.

In addition to this, regarding bear conservation, there is another flaw in HL similar to that contained in the LCES.  Assuming the animal is obtained illegally, HL can control the circulation of whole bear (dead or alive), stuffed bears, specimens, fur, fur products and processed foods. This can be interpreted in a way that gall bladder and its powder which probably would not be classified as processed food are not the subject of control. Therefore, even if the bear is hunted illegally, circulating its gall bladder and various derived products is legal for as long as they are not classified as processed foods. Considering these points, it is obvious that, in terms of bear conservation, the regulations regarding bear products are not functioning properly.

The Environment Agency requested prefectural governors to regulate the circulation of bear products derived from animals hunted after April 1993 (notification from the Chief of Nature Conservation Division, Environment Agency). Under this non-legally binding request, hunters and those holding permits to destroy bears under the pest control need to register the bear products with the prefectural governors. Tags are issued for the registered products, which are attached to the ears of the products and can be used to trace their subsequent circulation. However, the subject of control includes only stuffed animals (whole animals),  rugs (whole animal) and trophy (head).

(3) Summary of domestic trade restriction of bear gall bladders
Bear products whose circulation inside Japan is regulated under domestic laws.