Bear Conservation and Japan
Illegal Trade in Bear Bile
Government Policy, Legislation, and Enforcement
Action of JWCS
ACTION OF JWCS

      JWCS take a variety of actions for bear conservation. We have produced and published docuemtaries, reports, and pampletes to inform CITES and the public about the real situation of bear gallbladder and bile trade in Japan. For example,JWCS prepared a report “The Reality of Japan's Implementation and Enforcement for CITES” to consider how Japan is controlling import and export to enforce the provisions of the Convention. Domestic trade regulation is one of the most important measures to control illegal import and export, and in this report we consider the status of domestic regulation in Japan and what effect it is having on the trade in bear parts, particularly bear gall bladders inside Japan.  As a premise, we report on illegal import of bear gall bladders to Japan and demand and marketing in Japan. We also consider the problems of Capture and Hunting regulations regarding bears inhabiting Japan because this is a factor that has been making it difficult to control the domestic trade in bear.  

      JWCS also conducts periodic investigations of the illegal trade in bear bile and gallbladders in order to understand the actual sitaution in Japan. The inverstigations include determining the actual import of bear products inot Japan, as well as the ease of availability of bear products in traditional medicine stores.

      There are many recommendations that JWCS makes to the Japanese government in order to improve policy, legislation, and enforcement of the illegal trade in bear bile. Some of these recommendations are listed below.

1.   Include bear gall bladder and its powder products and any medical products containing gall bladder and other body parts would be traded under the domestic trade restrictions that apply under the LCES.

2.  Apply domestic trade restriction stipulated in the LCES to bears that  are caught in Japan.

3. Obtain and disclose data on bear gall bladder stocks and trade, in order to effectively implement control over domestic trade as specified in recommendations 1 and 2.

4.  Indicate additional and concrete measures with a view to replacing bear gall bladder contained in marketed medicines with alternative substances.

5.  Revise the LCES to include endangered regional population of wild species in Japan and grant appropriate bear populations with protected status.

6.  Restrict the total number of bears hunted both for sport and pest control. Pest control should be conducted both in a thoroughly rational fashion and with restraint, and should not excede quotas. In order to restrain hunting under pest control, legally binding standards to govern the granting of control permit s and procedures should be established in Hunting Law.

7.  Revise regulations regarding enforcement of hunting control and restrictions at the prefectural level. 

8.  Also revise restrictions pertaining to trap hunting.

9. Government organisations or publicly monitored individuals should conduct pest control or a system should be established so that government organisations can effectively monitor pest control.