About-Face

The Japanese have long been denounced as environmental villains, who import too many products made from endangered species and carry on destructive logging and fishing operations throughout the Pacific region. In two specific areas this month, Tokyo responded to the pressure from other nations.

Last week Japan announced that it would sharply curtail one of its most controversial practices: the use of drift nets. These enormous expanses of nylon mesh, which fan out for miles behind trawlers, are generally intended to catch squid and tuna, but they also indiscriminately trap and kill large numbers of other fish, seabirds, porpoises and other marine mammals. Japanese officials said they would reduce the drift-net fleet in the South Pacific to 20 ships, the same number that worked the area in the 1987-88 season. This season the fleet had grown to at least 60 boats. The restrictions do not apply to the approximately 450 boats that ply the North Pacific, where they allegedly net large numbers of sea trout and salmon that might otherwise be caught by U.S., Canadian and Soviet fishermen.

Just the week before, Japan declared a total ban on ivory imports. The country's ivory carvers have traditionally been the most avid consumers of tusks taken from African elephants. But in recent years, concerned that the rapid depletion of elephant herds could mean the end of their ancient trade, the carvers have agreed to ever tightening import restrictions. Now Tokyo has decided to halt all shipments indefinitely and let the carvers work from ivory stockpiles.

Environmentalists praised Japan's actions but noted that the reduction in drift-net use was much less sweeping than the ivory ban. Said New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer: "Any drift netting in the South Pacific is unacceptable."