June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese police arrested two Greenpeace Japan activists today for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat the environmental group said it took to provide evidence of corruption in Japan's whaling program.

Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, were arrested for allegedly trespassing and stealing whale meat from Seino Transportation Co. in Aomori prefecture, northern Japan, police spokesman Shuetsu Toda told Bloomberg News by telephone.

Greenpeace showed reporters last month a box containing 23.5 kilograms (52 pounds) of whale meat it said was smuggled ashore by a crew member on Japan's whaling fleet for sale on the black market. Greenpeace gave the box to prosecutors along with documents from its investigation into stolen whale meat worth as much as 15 million yen ($139,000), the group said.

``What is surprising is that these activists, who are innocent of any crime, would be arrested for returning whale meat that was stolen from Japanese taxpayers by crew of the whaling fleet,'' Greenpeace Executive Director Jun Hoshikawa said in a statement. ``It would appear to us that this is an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for a scandal.''

The Japanese government spends as much as $60 million a year on its whaling program, including on expeditions to Antarctica backed by a license for scientific research it issues. The government relies on sales of whale meat to fund 85 percent of its costs.

Australia, the U.S., New Zealand and other countries, along with environmental groups, say the research program is a sham and is commercial whaling in disguise.

Justified Intervention

Taking the box was justified to convince prosecutors to investigate the corruption, Greenpeace told reporters on May 15. Hajime Ishikawa, deputy head of the Institute of Cetacean Research, said at the time the meat was a gift to crew members and presented ``no legal problem.''

Prosecutors are preparing to drop an investigation into crew members of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, a company contracted by the Institute to conduct the hunts, Kyodo English News reported today, citing unidentified people familiar with the inquiry.

Greenpeace named 12 crew members of the Nisshin Maru, the whaling fleet's factory ship, in the criminal complaint the group filed with prosecutors. Crew members routinely take as much as 300 kilograms of whale meat each, Greenpeace cited one informer as saying in its report.

``The whaling program in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is funded by the Japanese tax-payers, including the Greenpeace activists who have been arrested this morning, and they have a right to know who is profiting,'' Hoshikawa said.

Scientific Whaling

Members of the International Whaling Commission, which imposed a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, are allowed to issue scientific whaling permits on the condition that meat from slaughtered whales, known as research byproduct, is later consumed. The Commission's annual meeting started in Santiago, Chile on May 29 and ends on June 27.

Japan killed 551 whales out of a planned catch of as many as 1,035 on the most recent Antarctic expedition, which ended in April after being disrupted by activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace. A year earlier, the fleet caught 508 whales out of a planned 945 after a fire crippled the 7,440-metric ton Nisshin Maru.

Meat from the expeditions is sold in markets in Japan and also distributed for use in school lunches.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net; Tak Kumakura in Tokyo at tkumakura@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 20, 2008 03:25 EDT