Green Party MP Gareth Hughes is encouraging New Zealanders to write letters to Japanese people asking them to stop whaling.

Gareth Hughes is hoping to show how mighty the pen can be by engaging the public in a letter writing campaign to stop Japanese whaling.

He is in Tauranga on Friday to promote the cause and he hopes to enthuse people there to take up the pen and write to friends in Japan.

'Tauranga has had a sister city relationship with the Japanese cities Hitachi, since 1988; and Susaki,” says Gareth, who will be in Red Square from 12-1pm.

'I'm visiting as part of a New Zealand tour to encourage kiwis to write to their friends in Japan asking for their help to save the whales.

'I'll be giving people from Tauranga the opportunity to write to residents in their sister cities in Hitachi and Susaki to invite the Japanese to join a campaign to stop their government from whaling in the Southern Ocean.”

'People will be able to send a letter and fold it into an origami whale to respectfully ask our sister city residents to protect whales from their government's whaling ships.
'It's the personal touch that counts, building on our international friendship, and it might just create a breakthrough in Japan that has so far been elusive.”