Day Three, Sunday March 6
Since I started working on the campaign for Hanako, I’d begun to hear rumors via supporters about a so-called elephant “retirement home” in Japan, called Zou no Rakuen (or “a paradise for elephants”). It was allegedly a place where elephants could roam freely in a lush, open natural space. Indeed, the photos on the website certainly made it look like a paradise or sanctuary:
My friend Tim — a book author and journalist based in Tokyo — did a bit more digging and found media records that indicated indeed, such a place did seem to exist. Here’s a quote from a Nikkei news article dated April 4, 2012, which he uncovered:
Sayuri Sakamoto, 62, head of Ichihara Elephant Kingdom in Chiba Prefecture, a zoo known for allowing visitors to ride on elephants, created an area where elephants can roam freely in a 13-hectare forest she bought in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, in 2002 to fulfill the wishes of her deceased eldest son, who was the first Japanese elephant trainer. Nine elephants now live in the area, having come from the Ichihara zoo.
So Tim called up the Ichihara Elephant Kingdom up, and managed to get a meeting set up with owner Ms. Sakamoto, for Carol and I. (Thank you Tim!) However, he informed me at that time that according to Ms. Sakamoto, unfortunately the elephant retirement facility was no longer in operation.
But Carol and I figured it would still be worth going to talk to Ms. Sakamoto. Secretly, we’d hoped we might even be able to work with her down the road to start a legitimate sanctuary for elephants in Japan. (How amazing would that be?!)
Well, I’m sorry to say, we were in for quite a disappointment.
Looking back, the signs were already there. After all, this so-called elephant paradise was confusingly connected to an elephant entertainment park or zoo called Zou no Kuni (or “Elephant Kingdom”). The park charges visitors a pretty hefty adult admission of 1800 yen (about $18 USD) and offers them daily elephant shows, elephant rides and even the chance to stand on an elephant’s trunk. None of these types of activities, of course, are in an elephant’s best interest.
But again, since Hanako’s zoo was not able to have meetings with us two consecutive days, Carol and I had one free extra day in between. So we decided to dedicate that day to go and meet with Ms. Sakamoto.
It was about a one-hour train ride plus 2-hour drive to Zou no Kuni from our hotel: no small feat to accomplish in one day. My Tokyo-based uncle was kind enough to rent a car and drive us part of the way — otherwise we simply couldn’t have reached it, as it’s in a fairly rural area, far from any train station or even highway.
When we arrived at the Elephant Kingdom, we met with Ms. Sakamoto, who I’d describe as a nice, entertaining and eccentric Japanese lady in her 60s. There is no doubt she has a passion for animals — in particular elephants — but not in the same way as you or I. Her passion is more that of a pet owner or collector, infused with that of a business person.
She welcomed us with open arms and told us her life story. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time Ms. Sakamoto was a fashion model, who fell deeply in love with animals—especially elephants—through her ex-husband, who was an animal trainer. So eventually, she took a bunch of her earnings from her modeling work to build a petting zoo type facility. But as time went on, she realized she had to charge admission and make a business of it, to survive. She said to find a means to eat and survive, the animals had to “work” too. I guess this is her justification for running a for-profit circus and a zoo.
But I am not going to go into any more detail about Ms. Sakamoto’s story, as there is really no point. Simply put, she is not the person who could one day build a real elephant sanctuary in Japan. In fact, as we spoke further, it became clear that her future plans for her so-called elephant “sanctuary,” is to actually to turn it into a breeding facility. She even had a marketable story for the place: She’d lost a son years ago, and wanted to build a “sanctuary” in his memory, because he really loved elephants. But as she explained further, it was obvious she was misinformed about what the term and true concept of a sanctuary is. What she plans to make instead is a breeding center for elephants—another business to add to her captive animal empire.
Anyway, after our sit-down meeting, we were ready to head out. But Ms. Sakamoto insisted that we come and see her elephants. So we went down to the zoo where her nine elephants—including two really cute babies wearing these ridiculous pink bows on their ears—came down the walkway towards the performing arena.
(Firstly, sorry for the poor video quality, as I was using my phone. The shrieking you hear towards the end are monkeys in a nearby exhibit reacting to the elephants near them.)
Note in the video that we are being personable and friendly, not criticizing. After all, this is Ms. Sakamoto’s place of business—whether we like it or not—and we were guests of hers. Also, Carol did mention to me that at least from what she saw, the elephants were not being treated cruelly here. However, she did mention they were not being cleaned properly (they smelled dirty, she said). She also noticed that the baby elephants were overweight, and that perhaps one of the mahouts was being a bit over-aggressive with the male baby during the show.
Anyway we were then made to sit down and watch this absurd elephant performance … that just dragged on and on. In a small, outdoor arena, Ms. Sakamoto’s resident elephants did tricks for the crowd like painting (which of course are later sold to visitors), pretending to go to sleep, dancing and putting hats on members of the audience. It was a really uncomfortable situation if like me, you don’t believe in using animals for human entertainment.
After what seemed like hours, we insisted we get moving. It was already mid-afternoon and Carol still had to finish her report on Hanako by the next day. And it would take us 3–4 hours to return to the hotel in Tokyo where she could get to work. However, Ms. Sakamoto strongly insisted we see her bull elephant. So we went up to his pen, and there he was, swaying back and forth in his enclosure. I guess he will be used for breeding once her new elephant-making business is up and running. Right next to his enclosure we saw the elephant pens. And there, Carol noted how despite Ms. Sakamoto earlier telling us concrete is bad for elephants to live on, the elephant pens had all concrete flooring.
As if this wasn’t enough, Ms. Sakamoto kept making us come and see other parts of her zoo, including a weird petting zoo with rabbits, ducks and a single kangaroo hopping around. To be honest, it was like a rich child wanting to show us all her toys—a really nice hospitable child, who was also being a tad bossy about it.
As she led us through the parks, I saw many other exotic animals being kept in very small enclosures. Two majestic camels — humps and all — in a cage no larger than the back of a large truck. A single giraffe in a similarly tight space. To be honest, it was more uncomfortable for me to be at this place than at Hanako’s zoo. Because here there were many more large exotic animals, all being kept in really inhumane situations. I later read she also keeps a hippo and tiger here too. Geez.
I’d say the only positive outcome from our visit was that Ms. Sakamoto clearly has a major obsession with elephants, and keeps extensive records of every single elephant in Japan (separated into categories of Asian and African) mapped out on the walls of her zoo shop.
She could therefore be a good source of information down the road for investigating the situation of other captive elephants in Japan. I also want to stress again that I didn’t feel she was a bad person. I’m sure there are many people around the world in her position (zoo owners, circus owners) who don’t give a damn about the animals.
She loves hers, but simply is misguided in her love (in my opinion). I actually liked her as someone to talk to and again appreciated her being open to having us there and being a welcome host.
To make matters worse, during our drive back to the city, there was a huge traffic jam on the highway caused by a serious accident in a tunnel. Traffic was not even moving in the slightest. We were stuck in a deadlock like that for over an hour. Meanwhile, it was pouring rain and Carol would now have even less time to work on her report.
The whole scene really matched the outcome of our trip that day. I felt dark, rainy and saddened that the closest thing to an elephant sanctuary in Japan had turned out to be … anything but. I felt kind of haunted by the captive animals I’d seen and discouraged about the situation for all elephants in Japan.
But at the same time, I also tried to feel optimistic for our final visit with the zoo the following day, when Carol would present the staff with her report. We would discuss it with them and answer any questions they had. I told myself that perhaps by focusing on one elephant for now, Hanako, we could one day help even more capative elephants in Japan in the future.
More to come on how this day went, in my next post.
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