This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

Japan has more ivory wholesalers, manufacturers, and retailers than any other country in the world. The Japanese government’s refusal to end its ivory trade is undermining historic strides being made by the international community to protect elephants from this savage trade. Join us in urging Japan to do right by elephants by ending its domestic ivory trade!

Japan has a system for registering ivory tusks that is fraught with loopholes and corruption. Proof of origin and proof of acquisition of ivory is required by law, but lax government oversight means that proof of origin documentation is continuously forged, muddying the lines between legal and illegal ivory. According to the UK’s Environmental Investigation Agency, more than 5,500 tusks of dubious origin have been registered as legal over the past few years. Japanese traders are more than willing to share tips with buyers on how to evade the system, knowing how poorly enforcement is regulated, and hence, fueling the illegal trade. 

Japan’s largest online retailer, Rakuten, has taken a firm stand in ending the trade by recently committing to a ban on the sale of ivory on its website, shutting down a major market for Japan’s ivory. Another of Japan’s largest retail companies, Aeon, announced that it will end sales of ivory-made products in all stores nationwide by March 2020. But Yahoo! Japan, the country’s biggest online auction site, continues to trade in ivory, fueling more illegal trade, and sanctioning the brutal slaughter of Africa’s remaining elephants.

We stand with Global March for Elephants and Rhinos and many other advocacy organizations in requesting that the Japanese Government end its ivory trade and join the growing international community taking a stand to preserve and protect one of earth’s most iconic and imperiled species.

What You Can Do

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.