Despite the fact that Norway and Japan permit the hunting, their political landscapes are vastly different. Both countries are rich in natural resources of petroleum, timber, and fish. Opening up hunting to foreign settlers will help reduce over-population of deer pumpkin carving stencil and other animals native to their environments. This is in line with a global trend that shows declining numbers of hunted species worldwide.
Within the last year, Norway has seen an increase in moose populations (with only 150 left) following the opening up of hunting for foreigners where once there were roughly 300 moose per square mile before. In contrast with this success story is Japan’s woeful attempts to stem over-population through its own methods which have had mixed effects on its wildlife population.
1. The Population Problem
Despite the success of population control measures at the national level, regional differences make the government’s policies less effective. Due to its climatic conditions, Japan can experience both cold winters and hot summers even in the same year. In order to compensate for this duality, Japan is forced to use contraceptives during only three months each year. If the region were to be opened up for hunting on a regular basis, more people would be able to hunt during these three months. This increase in hunting will cause a direct increase in white-tailed deer population which already is at a dangerously high rate.
The Japanese approach towards population control has led them to adopt strict laws regarding abortion as well as draconian penalties for anyone caught having an illegal abortion. This has lead to a general distrust in the government towards anyone caught with an illegal abortion. The Japanese people also have a fear of being persecuted because of this issue. This has resulted in low birth rates as well as a low rate of adoption of children by foreign couples.
The Japanese take pride in their country and its history, which highlights the fact that Japan was once ruled by samurai (a warrior class). However, the childless samurai’s women had no choice but to bring their pregnancies to term with no medical care at all. If there was an illegal abortion or miscarriage during this time, it would be done without anesthesia or drugs causing severe pain and suffering for both mother and child.
2. The Landscape
Another problem that the Japanese are faced with is land-use restrictions. The Japanese government can’t allow foreign settlers to hunt on any of their land, so instead, they allow them to hunt in reserves that have already been designated for this purpose. However, the country still has a very diverse landscape including vast amounts of snow-capped mountains as well as numerous islands and forests. This is something that even the strongest regulations in place were unable to prevent from clashing with human activities.
On top of its unique geography, Japan also has several endemic species of flora and fauna that are extremely rare in the rest of the world. There are only two populations of these endangered species in the world, one in Japan and the other in Russia. However, the national government has issued strict regulations on what types of animals can be hunted and what areas they can be hunted in. At this moment there are over 600,000 deer occupying an area roughly half the size of Connecticut, which is ten times more than is sustainable for ecological reasons.
3. The Opportunity
The Japanese have also been faced with criticism over their shady business dealings with foreign nations through their policy of economic nationalism (which has made it extremely difficult to get a license to open up a business in Japan). This has put severe restrictions on the amount of people that are allowed to enter the country. The opening up of hunting will take a major toll off this issue by allowing many more people to export their surplus deer meat to other countries and thus make it feasible for many more people to conduct business in Japan.
4. The Problems
The main problem that a lot of people have with the Japanese position is that they don’t want to simply open up fox hunting (which is an even lower level animal) but instead want full deer hunting rights, as well as other animals like boar and wild birds. These are not things that are farmed domestically and thus they won’t be able to be used as food sources by Japanese citizens. This can be seen as a violation of their own constitution because it would be considered cruel to put most of the population’s food supply in the hands of foreigners.
The government has made a number of public statements in hopes that people will take an educated position on this issue and will support their conviction. If the rest of the world is willing to open up for fisheries and hunting, especially for species that don’t cause a lot of damage to the land or use up a lot of resources, Japan wants to provide an example for other nations so that wildlife populations can be managed humanely and sustainably.
