Animal welfare and rights in Japan

Japan has implemented several national animal welfare laws since 1973, but these protections are considered weak by international standards.

In 675, Emperor Tenmu issued a ban on the consumption of meat, with exceptions for fish and wild animals, due to his devout Buddhist beliefs.

[4] Meat consumption was reintroduced to Japan with the arrival of Christian missionaries from Portugal and the Netherlands in the 16th century, who brought with them their omnivorous diets.

[5] In 1687, the Tokugawa shogunate, following Buddhist principles, reinstated the ban on eating meat and made killing animals illegal.

In 2005, the law was amended to incorporate new basic guidelines for experimentation based on the Three Rs (refine, replace, reduce) for animal testing.

Cruelty Free International estimates that Japan ranks second in the world (behind the United States) in the number of animals used in experiments.

The law requires that "quasi-drugs," such as skin-lightening products, suntan lotion, and hair growth tonics, be tested on animals when new ingredients are added.

[20] In 2015, Humane Society International began leading a Be Cruelty-Free campaign to pressure the National Diet to ban testing cosmetics on animals.

The officially sanctioned method now requires a metal pin to be driven into the cervical region (neck) of the dolphin to sever the brainstem.

Targeting the brainstem causes death within seconds, according to a memo from Senzo Uchida, the executive secretary of the Japan Cetacean Conference on Zoological Gardens and Aquariums.

Asian small-clawed otters, a species native to Southeast Asia whose international trade has been banned by CITES,[27] are especially popular, with social media blamed for driving demand.

[29] VegeProject Japan also focuses on farmed animal issues by encouraging companies and institutions to offer plant-based options.

The organization has expanded to collaborate with companies through its vegan certification program, including with well-known brands such as Kikkoman, Kagome, Nippn, Marukome, and Marusanai.

[30] The Japanese Animal Welfare Society (JAWS) UK traces its origins to an organization founded in Tokyo in 1945 by British expatriates.

Its initial aim was to improve the welfare of dogs used in experiments, who were kept in poor conditions and subjected to unregulated in vivo tests.