Greenpeace Ship Finally Allowed to Berth In Japan

Yokohama, Japan — The Greenpeace ship Esperanza, which has sailed nearly 7,000 miles from the Southern Ocean to Japan was finally allowed to berth in Yokohama, near Tokyo, this morning after waiting for 10 days for permission to dock.

Originally the international environmental organisation’s ship was effectively banned from Japan after the actions of the All Japan Seamen’s Union resulted in the only ship’s agent willing to work with Greenpeace, formally withdrawing their services.

Since March 27th, Greenpeace has been working to independently get entry into Japan, and was finally allowed to anchor off shore in the port of Yokohama five days ago.

This morning, the Esperanza sailed into the port and docked, after successfully completing exhaustive inspections of the ship and its paperwork by customs, coastguard and port authority officials.