Greenpeace campaign director, Junichi Sato, talks to media during a protest outside the first day of the "International Whaling Commission Normalisation Meeting." The meeting was called by Japan and supported by pro-whaling nations. Outside the venue, the activists held a board depicting the names of 32 countries which Greenpeace suspects Japan has bought votes from for the pro-whaling vote at the IWC. While it cannot currently be proven that the Japanese government has used aid money to get votes, Greenpeace sees a strong link between the votes for Japan and the aid money some members in the IWC have received.