Dolphins at the Fuji Rock Festival

By Ric O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins Campaign
Earth Island Institute

Thousands of Japanese young people attending the Fuji Rock Festival in the mountains near Tokyo will learn about the plight of Japan’s dolphins, thanks to our Japanese friends.

You see, the young in Japan are the key to protecting dolphins and whales in the future. The new generation knows dolphins from TV and movies (including ironically, my “Flipper” TV show, which is still very popular in Japan), and they support a growing whale- and dolphin-watching tourism industry along the coast of Japan. Most do not even know that dolphins are being killed in Japan.

An estimated crowd of 120,000+ will attend the Fuji Rock Festival, July 30th, 31st and August 1st, with eight stages over several acres at a ski resort on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, featuring bands like Roxie Music, John Fogarty, Ken Yokoyama, Massive Attack, and a long list of other bands, large and small, Japanese and American. The largest stage can accommodate 40,000 people.

Our friends in Japan are organizing a Peace March in Taiji for the weekend of Sept. 4th, and, thanks to your support, they will have a booth at the Fuji Rock Festival and will be handing out 2,000 copies of the edited Cove DVD (the 15-minute subtitled version you can find on our home page at the bottom). They will also have thousands of leaflets to invite people to the Sept. Peace March to Taiji. Many of us will be joining that March as part of our stay in Taiji beginning on Sept. 1st, the start of the six-month dolphin hunt season.

For further information on the Fuji Rock Festival, go to the Festival website:

It has been very difficult for people in Japan to stand up publicly against the dolphin killing. Both the government and extreme Nationalist groups make taking a public stand an intimidating prospect. We are proud that we have friends in Japan who are willing to work with us to seek a solution to the dolphin hunts, once and for all. At the same time, they agree with us that our presence in Taiji in September will emphasize the positive alternatives for eco-tourism and dolphin-watching opportunities for visitors.

Your donations make our efforts to protect the dolphins and whales of Japan possible. We are making tremendous in-roads into Japan, thanks to your help. But we still have a long way to go. Please consider making a donation today.


And thank you, one and all, for all your help! We really appreciate it.