John,

Every year, tens of thousands of elephants are butchered for their tusks despite a global ivory ban -- and Japan’s massive domestic market remains one of the main drivers.

But we have a once-in-a-generation chance to change that: Japan is fully reviewing its ivory laws for the first time in 30 years!

Public pressure has already pushed Japanese companies like Rakuten, Aeon, and Yahoo! Japan to ban ivory sales -- now’s our moment to make the government shut it down altogether.

They’re drafting the laws now, and with the global endangered species summit coming up in just weeks, it’s our chance to put them in the spotlight. Add your name to protect these gentle giants:

Tell Japan: shut down the ivory market, save elephant lives.

Japan’s domestic ivory market is massive -- and it’s all legal. On top of millions of antique ivory items allowed in shops, the Government has an ‘official stockpile’ of more than 16,000 tusks and 80 tons of cut ivory pieces. That’s thousands of elephants’ lives lost just for ivory sitting in storage.

Every tusk and item sold legally increases the risk that illegal ivory slips through -- investigation after investigation has shown that the presence of ‘legal’ ivory in Japan creates loopholes that fuel trafficking and poaching.

But after years of small adjustments, Japanese lawmakers are finally doing a full review. If they act decisively, they could shut down one of the world’s largest legal ivory markets -- and save thousands of elephants from torture. 

The time to act is now -- the review is almost complete, and environment ministries from around the world will be meeting in just weeks for their annual summit, putting Japan in the spotlight. Add your name and share with animal lovers everywhere:

Tell Japan: shut down the ivory market, save elephant lives.

We know our pressure works -- just last year, we forced global tourism giant TUI to introduce a ban on shark-fin transportation on their planes. If we focus our attention on Japan today, we could win again -- and ensure elephants will still be roaming the planet for generations to come.