According to Japanese law, cut pieces of ivory do not need to be registered with the government. It is common practice for illicit ivory traders to launder illegally-obtained whole ivory tusks onto the domestic market in Japan by cutting them into pieces. Furthermore, the whole tusk registration scheme in Japan is rife with fraud and abuse. Thus, it is impossible to verify the legality of any whole tusk sold, whether registered or not. Given the inherent weaknesses of Japanese law and the absence of government oversight over the trade, the responsible action for socially responsible and forward-looking companies like yours to take is to stop dealing in ivory all together.

Unfortunately, Yahoo! Japan’s auction and online shopping sites are a major distribution channel for the sale of ivory in Japan, much of which is illegal. Recent investigations revealed that 93 percent of the more than 6,000 advertisements carried by Yahoo! Japan’s shopping site on a single day in August 2015 were for ivory hanko name seals. Evidence shows that unregistered, and thus illegal, ivory tusks are regularly processed into ivory hanko name seals and sold on Yahoo! Japan’s shopping website. On a single day, the sales value of ivory offered in the 6,000 ads on Yahoo! Japan Shopping was US$2.6 million. On Yahoo! Japan Auctions, the value of “closing bids” for ivory products increased from US$584,000 in 2005 to just under US$7 million in 2014, with a total of $27 million for the ten-year period. Between 2012 and 2014, over 800 whole tusks were sold on the auction site. The scale of ivory sales of dubious origin on Yahoo! Japan’s shopping and auction sites is immense and growing.

While the Government of Japan currently permits trade in elephant ivory, many major companies and governments worldwide have adopted more progressive policies to ensure endangered and threatened species, like elephants, are protected from commercial trade in their products. For instance, leading internet retailers Google, Amazon.com, and Alibaba have banned ivory sales on all their sites globally, and Yahoo! Inc. in the United States does not permit sales of ivory products. In September 2015, President Obama and President Xi of China made a joint commitment to “take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory.” We hope Yahoo! Japan, and the Government of Japan, will join the ranks of corporations and nations dedicated to stopping the deadly ivory trade and protecting the world’s elephants.

We urge you to help protect Africa’s remaining elephants as an important expression of your commitment to protect the earth for future generations by immediately ending the advertisement and sale of elephant ivory on Yahoo! Japan’s auction and shopping sites.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Muruthi, PhD, Vice President – Species Conservation, African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) Takashi Kitamura, Director, All Life In a Viable Environment (ALIVE)

Shannon Elizabeth, Founder & President, Animal Avengers

Jan Creamer, President, Animal Defenders International (ADI)

Susan Millward, Executive Director, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI)

Adam M. Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Born Free Foundation (BFF)

Adam M. Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Born Free USA (BFUSA)

Sarah Uhlemann, International Program Director, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) Francis Garrard, Director, Conservation Action Trust

Luc Mathot, Director, Conservation Justice

Ofir Drori, Founding Director, Eco Activists for Governance & Law Enforcement (EAGLE)