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Reality Check: Japan’s Legal Domestic Ivory Market – Toward he 77th Meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC77)
 645 642 Japan Tiger Elephant Organization

The 77th Meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC77) will be held on 5th to 10th November 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland. Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF) and Envitonmental Investigation Agency (EIA) published a briefing Document for delegates to SC77. Overview ● Japan’s legal framework for the control of the trade in elephant ivory is designed and built to regulate and facilitate commercial ivory trade and support ivory traders. ● Japan’s ivory market is open – all pre-Convention ivory and ivory imported in the two CITES-approved sales can be traded. ● Japan should be included in the analysis of ivory seizures related to domestic ivory markets under Decision 19.99. At CoP19 in November 2022, Parties agreed to launch an analysis…

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PRESS RELEASE: International community relies more on Tokyo than on Japanese government on regulating over open domestic ivory market
 813 817 Japan Tiger Elephant Organization

Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund and 16 NGOs in the world sent a letter to the Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike in January 2023, requesting to enact an ordinance to be adopted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to close the ivory market in Tokyo with only very narrow exemptions if necessary. The Advisory Council on Regulation of Ivory Trade designated under the initiative of the Tokyo Governor on January 28, 2020 was closed on March 29, 2022, issuing the final recommendations after some delay due to COVID-19 pandemic. The most potential and noteworthy recommendation is: “[…] The Tokyo Metropolitan Government should consider legal or other effective means to ensure that the ivory trade does not contribute to elephant poaching and illegal…

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REPORT: Ripe for Abuse: Japan’s ivory market
 733 737 Japan Tiger Elephant Organization

Domestic ivory markets are on the agenda at CITES CoP19, and EIA and JTEF have released a short briefing focused on Japan’s domestic market, the most significant open market today. This report is prepared for briefing the facts and our views to the delegates to CoP19. Japan must recognize that any open ivory market contributes to illegal trade and poaching and must do its part to protect elephants by closing its domestic ivory market. CITES Parties must take decisive action at CoP19 to urge Japan to close its market.

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REPORT: Smugglers’ Source: Japan’s Legal Ivory Market – An Analysis of Chinese Court Decisions of Ivory Illegally Exported from Japan
 1024 924 Japan Tiger Elephant Organization

TOKYO (November 1, 2022)— Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund released today a report: “Smugglers’ Source: Japan’s Legal Ivory Market –An Analysis of Chinese Court Decisions of Ivory Illegally Exported from Japan”. Thousands of elephants are killed every year to supply the trade in their ivory tusks. While international commercial trade in ivory has been banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and many Parties have taken steps to close their markets*, Japan’s domestic ivory market remains open, supported by the world’s largest ivory stockpile**. Legal domestic ivory markets threaten the effectiveness of the international ban on commercial ivory trade and undermine the efforts of Parties that have closed their ivory markets.…

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