The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does not hold Japanese companies or Japanese citizens responsible for Japan’s illegal slaughter of the world’s whales.

When people have complained that we have Japanese equipment on our bridge, we have always answered that we cannot victimize individual Japanese companies unconnected with whaling just because the Japanese government is pro-whaling.

But one Japanese company has now made it perfectly clear that they support the killing of the whales and that they oppose our conservation efforts. That company is Furuno Inc.

The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin is equipped with Furuno navigational instruments like radar, depth sounders, and global positioning systems.

This week in Athens, Greece, we put in an order to replace an old failed radar system. We were given a quote and placed the order. The next day we were informed that Furuno has a policy that their equipment cannot be sold to Sea Shepherd.

Apparently, the Japanese government is not happy with seeing Furuno equipment onboard our ships in every episode of “Whale Wars.”

So it appears that we are not allowed to buy any Furuno products.  Damn, we guess a donation from Furuno is definitely out of the question!

This is the letter that we received today from Furuno’s sales representative in Greece

“Dear Sir,

Ref to our various telecons / exchanges on the subject, we regretfully advise you that, we, finally, are not in the position to supply you requested Arpa Radar, since we have such instructions from our Head Office in Japan.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Best regards

Capt. Spyros Dovelos
Sales Manager”

FURUNO ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
9-52 Ashihara-cho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo 662-8580, Japan
URL: http://www.furuno.co.jp/en/