Have Rare Animals as Pets? You Will Be Required to Renew Registrations

May 30, 2018

Tokyo- If you have a rare animal as a pet in Japan, you should know this: You will be required to renew your animal's registration every five years.

Under the revised law on conservation of endangered wild animals and plants set to take effect on Friday, registration documents for rare animals and plants will be given expiration dates as a step to prevent illicit transfers.

In Japan, government-issued registration documents are required when transferring or dealing in animals and plants legally imported under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

When the animals or plants die, their registration documents have to be returned.

Since the requirements were introduced in 1993, some 262,000 registration documents have been issued, while as few as 8,000 documents have been returned.

With no expiration dates set under the current system, some documents have been recycled for illegally acquired animals after the originally registered animals died.

Under the revised law, registration documents will expire in five years, and owners will be required to renew them.

Among popular pets that need registration documents are the arowana, a freshwater fish, the tortoise and the slow loris, a small monkey.

The revised law also introduces tougher regulations on businesses handling ivory, which has often been target of poaching.

Currently, dealers handling ivory have only to notify the government of their businesses. But the revised law will require registrations with the government.

Thanks to this change, the government will be able to cancel registrations when dealers handle poached ivory or are engaged in other violations. If violations in the past are found out, the government can reject applications for registrations.

The current law allows dealers that committed violations to continue operating if they pay fines.

The Environment Ministry is calling afresh on individuals holding unprocessed elephant tusks to register their holdings with the government. Registrations are not required for processed ivory such as personal seals and accessories.

An estimate shows that some 14,000 complete tusks exist in Japan.

If owners sell or transfer tusks without registrations, they can either face a prison term of up to five years or a fine of up to 5 million yen. Jiji Press