"Japan to withdraw from International Whaling Commission
TOKYO: Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling from July, it said on Wednesday, abandoning a decades-old campaign to persuade the commission to allow it to hunt whales commercially.
The announcement drew criticism from anti-whaling groups and others, with Australia saying it was "extremely disappointed" and New Zealand regretting the resumption of the "outdated and unnecessary" commercial killing of the ocean mammals.
Japan's commercial whaling will be limited to its own territorial waters and its exclusive economic zone, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who made the announcement at a news conference after a cabinet decision on Tuesday.
"From July 2019, after the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere," Suga said in a statement.
"The whaling will be conducted in accordance with international law and within the catch limits calculated in accordance with the method adopted by the IWC to avoid negative impact on cetacean resources," he said.
Japan's decision followed the IWC's latest rejection of its bid to resume commercial whaling at a September meeting, which Suga said showed it was impossible to bridge the gap between whaling advocates and anti-whaling members.
Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its culture.
It began scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium began.
Much of the meat ends up on store shelves, even though most Japanese no longer eat it. Whale consumption accounted for 0.1 percent of all Japanese meat consumption, according to the Asahi newspaper.
Influential lawmakers in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party whose constituencies include whaling communities have long lobbied for a resumption of commercial whaling. Abe's own electoral district includes Shimonoseki, a whaling port in western Japan."
1 mystery that outsiders will never understand since not many Japanese supposedly eat whale meat these days!!
It remains a mystery to even the Japanese who advocate to leave the whales alone!!
The word: "culture" is a big emotional one.
Every time we try to use rationality to understand an emotional matter, rationality failed miserably!!
It will b interesting to see if Greenpeace team will try to disrupt whaling in supposedly legitomate Japan's own fishing ground comes next July!!
If i were a whale, i will stay out of Japanese water!!
TOKYO: Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling from July, it said on Wednesday, abandoning a decades-old campaign to persuade the commission to allow it to hunt whales commercially.
The announcement drew criticism from anti-whaling groups and others, with Australia saying it was "extremely disappointed" and New Zealand regretting the resumption of the "outdated and unnecessary" commercial killing of the ocean mammals.
Japan's commercial whaling will be limited to its own territorial waters and its exclusive economic zone, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who made the announcement at a news conference after a cabinet decision on Tuesday.
"From July 2019, after the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere," Suga said in a statement.
"The whaling will be conducted in accordance with international law and within the catch limits calculated in accordance with the method adopted by the IWC to avoid negative impact on cetacean resources," he said.
Japan's decision followed the IWC's latest rejection of its bid to resume commercial whaling at a September meeting, which Suga said showed it was impossible to bridge the gap between whaling advocates and anti-whaling members.
Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its culture.
It began scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium began.
Much of the meat ends up on store shelves, even though most Japanese no longer eat it. Whale consumption accounted for 0.1 percent of all Japanese meat consumption, according to the Asahi newspaper.
Influential lawmakers in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party whose constituencies include whaling communities have long lobbied for a resumption of commercial whaling. Abe's own electoral district includes Shimonoseki, a whaling port in western Japan."
1 mystery that outsiders will never understand since not many Japanese supposedly eat whale meat these days!!
It remains a mystery to even the Japanese who advocate to leave the whales alone!!
The word: "culture" is a big emotional one.
Every time we try to use rationality to understand an emotional matter, rationality failed miserably!!
It will b interesting to see if Greenpeace team will try to disrupt whaling in supposedly legitomate Japan's own fishing ground comes next July!!
If i were a whale, i will stay out of Japanese water!!
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