It's hard not to see this thread as too political, but what the heck.
I think that not buying a Kobo for this reason is equivalent to boycotting any Japanese company with even a toehold in what amounts to classified advertising, and just because there is one aspect of Japan's national policy you don't like. This strikes me as extreme to the point of being unfriendly to Japan.
According to the advocacy group making the claims here -- the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA):
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_...AJ201403190129
Quote:
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Amazon and Google have stopped all sales or advertisements of whale, dolphin and ivory through their Japanese e-commerce sites, and Rakuten must do the same
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OK, but if you believe an earlier EIA report, the stoppage of Amazon ivory sales must have been one year ago, or less:
http://eia-global.org/news-media/ama...ter-of-africas
Quote:
Amazon.com is Selling Thousands of Ivory Items as the Slaughter of Africa’s Elephants Intensifies
March 12, 2013
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So, assuming that most people choose Kobo over a year ago, the alternative you would have chosen might also have had imperfections.
Also, there is such a thing as legal Ivory:
http://www.cites.org/eng/news/pr/200...07_ivory.shtml
If Rakuten has, or starts having, a system to verify that these vendors are honest, that would be good. But, more likely, the current all-over-the-internet anti-Rakuten moral panic will result in them dropping such third-party vendors, further driving the trade into the unregulated underground.