Japanese Government to withdraw from International Whaling Commission and recommence commercial whaling?

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 2018:

Japan is to withdraw from International Whaling Commission by the end of the year, giving it the freedom to resume commercial whaling, Japanese news agency Kyodo has reported.

Kyodo quotes a government source as saying that Japan is unlikely to catch whales in the Antarctic Ocean after its withdrawal.

The government is considering allowing commercial whaling only in seas near Japan as well as the country's exclusive economic zone, the source said.

The decision will be announced by the end of this year, Kyodo said.

Humane Society International (HSI) said in a statement that, if the reports were confirmed, they would mark a welcome end to whaling in the Southern Ocean.

However, Nicola Beynon, from HSI in Australia, believes that Tokyo's decision to leave the rules-based order of the IWC would place Japans' North Pacific whaling program completely outside the bounds of international law.

She also fears that Japan may recruit other pro-whaling nations to leave the IWC, "leading to a new chapter of widespread and unauthorised killing of whales for profit".

"This is the path of a pirate whaling nation, with a troubling disregard for international rule. We're going to continue to press the international community to bring an end to the unjustified persecution of whales for commercial profit wherever it occurs," she said.

The IWC was established in 1948 under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. Japan joined the organisation in 1951.

Kyoda News, 20 December 2018:

The following is a chronology of events related to Japan's whaling.

1948 - The International Whaling Commission is established under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

1951 - Japan joins the IWC.

1982 - The IWC adopts a moratorium on commercial whaling.

1987 - Japan starts hunting whales in the Antarctic Ocean for what it calls "scientific research" purposes.

1988 - Japan halts commercial whaling.

1994 - Japan launches research whaling in the Northwest Pacific.

2005 - Anti-whaling Sea Shepherd starts obstructing Japan's research whaling in the Antarctic.

2014 - The International Court of Justice issues an order to halt Japan's research whaling in the Antarctic.

2015 - Japan resumes research whaling in the Antarctic by reducing the number of whales it hunts.

September 2018 - The IWC rejects Japan's proposal to resume commercial whaling at an annual meeting in Brazil.

Dec. 20 - Japan's plan to withdraw from the IWC comes to light.

Japan has until 1 January 2019 to notify the International Whaling Commission of its intention to withdraw.

Japan finds threats and bribery not working as well as expected with member countries in International Whaling Commission – will seek to change voting rules

I’ve lost count of the times that Japan has threatened to leave the International 
Whaling Commission (IWC) and bribery allegations seem to have been floating 
around forever. 

In 2001 a Japanese government official admitted to using these tools.

However, it appears the Government of Japan is not satisfied with results to date 
and now want to see IWC voting rules changed so that it won’t take as many 
threats and bribes to get its way and recommence large-scale commercial whaling.

Kyoda News, 27 June 2018:

Japan is set to propose resuming commercial whaling of some species at a 
meeting of the International Whaling Commission in September as a ruling 
party endorsed the government plan on Tuesday.

Tokyo is targeting certain types of whales whose numbers are relatively 
abundant such as minke whales for the proposal, but it remains uncertain 
whether it can secure support from members of the IWC that are split over 
whaling.

Tuesday's approval by the Liberal Democratic Party came amid emerging 
calls from some government officials and ruling party lawmakers that Japan 
should weigh withdrawal from the IWC.

Their criticism is directed at the divisive and what they see as dysfunctional 
nature of the international body, with one ruling party source saying, "We 
are not going to drag this out."

At the meeting from Sept. 10 to 14 in Brazil, to be chaired by Japanese 
government representative Joji Morishita, Japan plans to make a packaged 
proposal that also calls for easing of the IWC's decision-making rules, a plan
seen as a tactic to court anti-whaling members.

Currently, approval from a majority of three-fourths of IWC members is 
needed to set a catch quota or a sanctuary where whaling is banned. 
The Japanese proposal is to lower the hurdle to a simple majority.

The potential easing of the rules will make it easier for anti-whaling members
to secure support for designating a new whale sanctuary.

Of the IWC's 88 members, 40 support whaling while the remaining 48 are 
against the practice, according to Japan's Fisheries Agency.

The IWC, which aims to manage whaling and conserve whales, was 
established in 1948. In 1982, it declared there should be a moratorium on 
commercial whaling and the ban came into force in 1986.

Japan stopped commercial whaling across the board in fiscal 1988. But it 
continues to hunt whales for "research purposes," drawing criticism 
overseas that the practice is a cover for commercial whaling.

Phys Org, 27 June 2018:

At September's meeting in Brazil, Japan "will propose setting a catch 
quota for species whose stocks are recognised as healthy by the IWC 
scientific committee", Hideki Moronuki, an official in charge of whaling at 
Japan's fisheries agency, told AFP.

Moronuki said the proposal would not specify which whale species and 
how many mammals Japan wants to hunt, but he said the IWC classifies 
several species as no longer depleted.

The moratorium has been in place since 1986, and Japan's previous 
attempts to win a partial lifting have been unsuccessful.

Japan will also propose measures to change the body's decision-making 
process, lowering the threshold for proposals to pass from three quarters 
of members to half.

"The IWC has not been functioning. We should get united to build a more 
cooperative system," Moronuki said.

Tokyo has continued to hunt whales despite the moratorium, exploiting a 
loophole allowing "scientific research". It says the research is necessary to prove whale populations are large enough to sustain a return to commercial 
hunting.

It makes no secret of the fact that meat from the expeditions ends up on dinner tables, despite a significant decline in the popularity of whale meat.

Whales were a key protein source in the immediate post-World War II years, 
when the country was desperately poor, but most Japanese now say they 
rarely or never eat whale.

But foreign pressure on Japan to stop whaling has hardened the positions 
of conservative activists and politicians.

Japan cancelled its 2014-2015 hunt after the International Court of Justice 
said permits being issued by Tokyo were "not for purposes of scientific 
research".

But it resumed the hunts in 2016, and conservationists were furious this 
year after Japan reported it had caught 333 minkes on its latest expedition, 
122 of which were pregnant.

Japanese officials said the high rate of pregnant whales showed the strength 
of the minke population.

Japan's last bid to ease the restrictions was in 2014, when the IWC voted 
down its request to hunt 17 minke whales in its coastal waters—where 
smaller whales which Japan claims are not regulated by the committee are 
already hunted.

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.