Surf star attacks Japanese thugs

By Shaun Davies
ninemsn

A well-known Australian surfer says Japanese fishing industry "thugs" heavied surf store employees as they attempted to track down dolphin conservationists.

Dave Rastovich has featured heavily in ad campaigns for surf company Billabong and joined activists in October last year to protest against an annual dolphin slaughter at the Japanese whaling town of Taiji.

But he said he had been misrepresented in newspaper reports that claimed Japan's feared Yakuza gangsters were behind the alleged strong-arm tactics.

"After we left Taiji in October, fisheries reps of some sort visited surf stores along the coastline of Japan looking for us and wanting to identify anyone who may have helped us," Mr Rastovich said.

"Also, people who have helped us are now subject to exclusion and blackballing from the surfing industry.

"And not one mainstream article has been run on our action in October … the surfing media has also run nothing on our story, despite me being on the cover of five surfing magazines within Japan in the last 12 months."

Mr Rastovich and others, including actresses Isabel Lucas and Hayden Panettiere, clashed with local fishermen during the dolphin protest before driving to Osaka and fleeing the country to avoid arrest.

But he said a story in a Sydney newspaper that claimed vicious Yakuza thugs had launched a campaign of intimidation against shop owners and the media had twisted his words.

"I do not like the Yakuza spin the Daily Telegraph put on my statements — I never said they were Yakuza," Mr Rastovich said.

Yakuza is the name given to organised crime groups in Japan, which are distinctive from the Italian mafia in that they are highly visible and tolerated to some degree by authorities.

These groups make much of their money from involvement in protection rackets, prostitution and pornography, and often have clearly marked offices in big cities.

According to information shown to ninemsn, the Japanese fishing industry may have some links to organised crime.

But any alleged standover men were unlikely to have been suit-wearing gangster types typically portrayed in films.

More likely, they would be tough operators from the fishing industry. These could possibly be regarded as a type of Yakuza, but only in the broader sense of the term, the information said.

More information on the point of view of the dolphin protesters can be found at this website.