Willing to Sell: Snapshot Investigations of Ivory Hanko Retailers in Japan
Japan is home to the world’s largest legal domestic ivory market, and its weak ivory trade controls enable consistent trafficking in ivory, including illegal exports.
EIA and Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund completed two snapshot investigations in 2020 as a follow-up to a similar 2018 investigation to determine retailers’ willingness to sell an ivory hanko knowing the customer planned to export it, which is illegal.
Investigations of Japanese hanko retailers revealed that many are willing to sell an ivory product knowing that it will be exported internationally despite most being aware that ivory export is illegal.