Elephant Conservation and Japan Illegal Trade in Ivory Government Policy, Legislation, and Enforcement Action of JWCS
ILLEGAL TRADE IN IVORY
The Japanese ivory market has two faces. The first face is the "Black" market. Weak Japanese domestic trade control allows ivory acquired from illegal sources to be broadly distributed. The second face is the "Grey" market. "Legal" ivory in trade is inevitably used as a cover for illegal sources of ivory to make their way to the market. Smugglers continue bringing ivory of poached elephants and other unknown origins into Japan hoping to profit from the existing high demand. There have been several cases of seizures and arrests by the Customs, but those are merely a tip of the iceberg. The reality is, Japanese ivory industry, with the help from specialized brokers who covertly move in and out the country, is getting supply of illicit ivory from international black markets. JWCS contacted with an ivory professional broker during its investigation in 2002. He said, “The ivory from southern Africa that came to Japan in 1999 was the oldest of the stock accumulated in ten years since the trade ban, so the quality was awful. But ivory dealers had to buy it for the sake of carrying on to the next step.” This implies that the continuing legal trade would serve as a good cover for smuggling of high-quality ivory. He confidently claimed that there would be no end in demand for ivory as long as the price stays reasonable. “At the height of the trade, in Osaka as much as three tons of ivory products used to be manufactured every month. Nowadays the production is less, but still dealers are in search of reasonable ivory materials,” he said. This explains why dealers immediately and delightedly accept offers of high-quality ivory with low price. The information above suggests that ivory has been continuously smuggled since the ban of ivory imports in 1990. More recently or June 28, 2002, the Singapore authority seized 532 tusks and 40,810 ivory pieces stuffed in six wooden crates on a container passing through the port on the way to Japan (The Straits Times, 12 July, 2002). Illegal import of ivory to Japan ithreatens elephant species and requires immediate concern.	Ivory hankos for sale in Singapore
	The stock of whole tusks at a warehouse
	Ivory assecories at a retailer
	Seized ivory tusks in April 2000
Click here to view a report entitled "Black and Grey- Illegal Ivory in Japanese Markets" (PDF) This report takes a critical look at illegal ivory markets in Japan and argues that Japan's domestic controls on the ivory trade are far from adequate to ensure that such trade does not threaten elephant species.