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...
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