Spokesperson for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research finally admits that its Antartic operation is about commercial whaling

 

The Japan Daily Press 27 February 2013:

 

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that there will probably no end to whaling in Japan, in spite of the sometimes violent objection from conservationists. He believes that the criticism of the whaling practice is “a cultural attack, a kind of prejudice against Japanese culture”.
 
Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke in The Age 28 February 2013: 

How absurd has the argument become, if Japan is now arguing that it has a traditional cultural practice of travelling from one side of the planet to the other to kill whales in a whale sanctuary.

 

Glenn Inwood of Omeka Public Relations and SpinItWide, as a spokesperson for the Institute of Cetacean Research, makes an admission that commercial whaling is a stand alone reason for the Japanese Government sponsored annual whale kills in Antarctic waters.

 

Excerpt from ABC TV 7.30 program 27 February 2013:

 

LEIGH SALES: Say then I take you at your word. If this really was for just scientific research given the enormously bad PR that whaling delivers for Japan, why not just leave the scientific research to somebody else?

GLENN INWOOD: Yes, that's perfectly right but Japan wants to undertake more than just scientific research on abundant whale stocks in the Southern Ocean. It wants to undertake a limited, very limited commercial hunt on abundant whale species for food for Japanese people. There's lots of arguments going on and around this. At the end of the day this is Japan's right under the international law, under the international convention for the regulation of whaling. It is their right to do this and that's what they want.

LEIGH SALES: We will be interested to see what the ICJ says about that. Glenn Inwood thank you very much for joining us.