(Kazuhiro NOGI/AFP/AFP) At his store in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district, Hajime Sasaki displays a disparate array of wares, from chopsticks to Buddha statues -- including many made of ivory.

Illegal carved ivory (photograph by Bill Butcher, via U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region) These episodes mark the first time there’s been public destruction of ivory in non-African ...

International trade in elephant ivory is illegal, but Japan hosts one of the world's largest remaining legal domestic markets for the product, which can only be bought and sold within its borders. It ...