MAKE YOUR MARK
ぞうとの約束To
The retailing business dealing with ivory hanko

Request： Please stop selling ivory hanko to help protect the future of elephants.
Annually more than 20,0000 elephants are still being killed for their ivory
Why we are concerned
Crisis of African elephants
There are annually 20-30,000 African Elephants which
are killed for their ivory by poachers and as a result,the elephant population continues to see dangerous
decline. According to a new census result for theAfrican elephant population presented by IUCN
(International Union for the Conservation of Nature)
last September, the population in the African Continent
declined by 111,000 elephants since 2006, and as of2015, the population was found to be 415,000elephants. As long as there is a worldwide demandfor ivory, the decline of African elephants will accelerate
so much so that there is a danger of the elephants
becoming extinct in the near future.
The poaching crisis between 1970 – 1980 at its worst
was subsided by the ivory international trade ban in
1989 mandated by the “Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES), but in 2006 it was revived again.
Such a huge scale of elephant poaching and illegaltransboundary trafficking of ivory will drive Africanelephants to the brink of extinction and cause serious
damage to ecosystems which also sustain humans as
well. It has been linked that such illegal activities wouldgenerate income for criminal terrorist groups so thatinternational security would be jeopardized.

CITES resolution on closure of domestic ivory
markets
Facing the crisis of elephants, the Conference of theParties to CITES adopted a resolution recommending
closure of domestic ivory markets which “contributes topoaching or illegal trade” (October 3, 2016). This is
now called the “resolution on closure of domestic ivorymarkets”.
The government of Japan refuses to acknowledge
any link between poaching of wild elephants and theirlegal domestic market which they believe is ‘strictlycontrolled.’
Tone of media after adoption of the resolution onclosure of domestic ivory markets
Media in Japan have widely covered the story ofivory trade so that the public opinion has grown. The
number of news articles regarding Japan’s ivory traderelated to Japan amounts to 272 in 2016, 172 in 2017/and 444 in total (researched by JTEF).
Most of the articles take a deep interest in and reportabout the international tide toward closure of themarket without a critical tone.

Responsibility of Japan
No one argues the fact that this current crisis wasbrought about primarily by China’s high demand forIvory.
However, Japan was regarded as the leading
consumer of ivory until in 2004 China had surpassed
Japan. During the decade of 1980’s while Japan
became the leading importing country mainly for
producing hanko (names stamps), the number ofelephants in the wild dropped by 50% just in one
decade. Now, in this 1-2 year period, , Japan has
resurrected as the country now holding the largest
legal ivory market since China has now officially closed
its domestic ivory market. Given the above reasons,Japan still has a special moral responsibility for how it
should view its ivory market.

News articles covered adoption of the resolution （Oct 3, 2016）

The adoption of the resolution and the possible
future response by Japan has been discussed not onlyin news articles but also in 12 editorials during 2016
and 2017. All of them criticized the management of theivory trade by Japan and emphasized the weight of theresolution.

1

implemented the Federal law and regulation for theclosure in June 2016. China closed its market at theend of December 2017. HK adopted step by step
regulations for closing its market by the end of 2021.
The UK is expected to adopt the regulation for closurenear future. The EU is developing the discussion
toward closure. Now, Japan is the only country which
is taking no meaningful action and turns its back to theresolution & closure of its domestic ivory market.

The events in/outside Japan after adoption of theresolution and its impact to Japanese society
In a period of one and half years during October
2016 and February 2018, several important events
have happened one after another.
① Continuous crackdowns of illegal ivory trades② Acceleration of the closure of domestic ivory
markets in major consuming countries③ Ban of ivory sale by major retailing businesses inJapanese market
The media has linked these events to the policy of
the Japanese government, and increased pressure
noting a tone like “The Japanese ivory market may
have to be closed regardless of the Government’s
stance saying that its market is neither contributing topoaching nor illegal trade”.

③ Ban of ivory sales by major retailing businessin the Japanese market
In July 2017 Rakuten banned ivory sales on its online
market place including Rakuten-Ichiba with one monthof suspension. Subsequently, shopping-mall giant,Aeon announced it will ban ivory sales by March 2020.
It explained the reason as consideration ofconservation of biodiversity and the concept ofsustainability adopted by Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic.

① Continuous crackdowns of illegal ivory trading
In Japan, until 2000s law enforcement authorities
had concentrated on illegal imports but they thenbegan cracking down on domestic illegal trading,where illegal activities were openly rampant..
Particularly in 2016 5 cases and in 2017, 2 cases
where brought in to stop illegal trading. Furthermore, aChinse sailor who attempted to export ivory wasarrested in 2017, a Chinese buyer, and a Japaneseivory manufacturer who is the member of “Tokyo Ivory
Arts and Crafts Cooperative Association” weresubsequently arrested for conspiracy of smugglingivory.
Those crackdowns has left clear impression toJapanese society that illegal ivory trade is actually
on-going although the government claims Japanesemarkets are not the target of closure because it isstrictly controlled.
表Articles on Asahi (left) in Aug.3 and Tokyo on Sep.
1(right) in 2017
It is increasingly anticipated that other companies
would follow those leading companies which madethese decisions based on international trends andrecognition of their social responsibility.
The writing is on the wall that the Japanese
government would eventually take the course ofclosure of domestic ivory market in the near future,
however many more African elephants will be killed
while it will certainly still take time to develop necessary
laws and regulations until then..
In fact, the regulatory failures within the Government ofJapan’s ivory control system enable illegal ivory to belaundered into the market, make it impossible for theprivate sector to detect or prevent such illegal ivory
from being sold online or in their shops. Thus, private
sectors are seriously expected to go in advance of thegovernment to make the decision of banning sale ofivory. Particularly the overwhelming major ivory
products in Japan are hanko, even though ivory is nota traditional/cultural material for producing hanko. Dueto there being a huge range of materials for producing
hanko retailers can continue selling their products
without selling Ivory.

刑事事件となった象牙の違法取引事例 2000-2018

・この リスト は、2018年2月22日 時点で JTEFによ って把 握され ている 検察官 送致事 例をあ げたも ので あり、 警察に よる摘 発事例のすべ てを必 ずしも 網羅す るもの ではな い。
・括弧 内の暦 年は送 検年を 、同都 道府県 は摘発 した警 察の管 轄地を 示す。

事件 1 (2000)
事件 2 (2005)
事件 3 (2007)
事件 4 (2007)
事件 5 (2007)
事件 6 (2011)
事件 7 (2011)
事件 8 (2011)
事件 9 (2013)
事件10 (2014)
事件11 (2016)
事件12(2016)
事件13 (2016)
事件14 (2016)
事件15 (2016)
事件16 (2017)
事件17 (2017)
事件18 (2017)
事件19 (2018)

概要
分割牙500 kgの神戸港への密輸入 (埼玉)
象牙印材 1,700 本の那覇空港への密輸入 (沖縄)
2.4トンの分割牙および0.4トンの象牙印材の大阪港への密輸入 (大阪)
16個（計2.4㎏）の分割牙（ビリヤード・キュー部品の製造用に加工したもの）の関西国際空港への密輸入 (大阪)
分割牙（ビリヤード・キュー部品の製造用に加工したもの）計2㎏の成田国際空港への、および同分割牙計2.2㎏の東京港への密輸入 (群馬)58 本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (東京)
1本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (東京)2本の無登録全形牙の譲受けおよび虚偽登録 (香川)
2本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (千葉)
1本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (東京)
2本の無登録全形牙の広告 (大阪)
1本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (東京)
1本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (神奈川)
2本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (東京)
5本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (静岡)
18本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (東京)
9本の無登録全形牙の引取り・引渡し (東京)
象牙の印材605本の密輸出 (東京)
1本の無登録全形牙の譲受け・譲渡し (京都)

② Acceleration of closure of domestic ivory
markets in major consuming countries
In September of 2015, both the US and China agreed
even before the adoption of the CITES resolution toclose their domestic markets for Ivory. The US2認定特定非営利活動法人 トラ・ゾウ保護基金〒105-0001 東京都港区虎ノ門2丁目5番4号末広ビル3階
Phone: 03(3595)8088
Fax:03(3595)8090
E-mail: hogokikin@jtef.jp
http://www.jtef.jp/

特定非営利活動法人

アフリカゾウの涙〒150-0002 東京都渋谷区渋谷三丁目２７番１１号
https://www.taelephants.org/

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)PO Box 53343, Washington, D.C. 20009, USA
https://eia-global.org/

Humane Society International (HSI)
1255 23rd Street, NW, Suite 450, Washington, DC
20037, USA
http://www.hsi.org/WildAid
333 Pine Street, Suite 300, San Francisco,
CA 94104, USA
https://wildaid.org/