The international community has again expressed strong opposition to Japan’s whaling efforts in the Antarctic, which it claims to be for scientific research.
In its biennial meeting held in Slovenia, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on Sept. 18 adopted a resolution aimed at delaying Japan’s resumption of its “scientific” whaling program.
About half a year has passed since the International Court of Justice handed down a ruling ordering Japan to halt its research whaling program, which the court said couldn’t be described as scientific.
The government is now seeking to restart the program in fiscal 2015 on a reduced scale. The number of cetacean species to be caught and the overall catch under the program will be cut, while research activities that don’t involve harvesting whales, such as visual inspection and DNA collection, will be expanded, according to Tokyo’s plan.
But there is no prospect that anti-whaling countries will accept Japan’s proposal because of these steps.
While the IWC’s resolution is not binding, it is certain that Japan’s move to resume whaling will provoke an international outcry.
With domestic consumption of whale meat remaining sluggish, the system designed to finance scientific whaling with money earned from sales of whale meat obtained through this program is no longer working.
The question the government should ask itself is whether it really makes sense to forge ahead with its plan to restart this controversial whaling program, which could cause Japan to be internationally isolated and requires annual spending of as much as billions of yen of taxpayer money.
Japan should instead explore ways to change the program into international joint research involving nations in the anti-whaling camp as well. To do so, Japan should stop hunting whales while maintaining its position that scientific research itself is necessary. It should also promise to make use of the relevant data it has been accumulating.
In addition to whaling for scientific research, which comes under the IWC' oversight, a small number of Japanese fishermen carry out small-scale coastal whaling in traditional whaling areas such as Taiji, a coastal town in Wakayama Prefecture.
Such whaling rooted deeply in the local community has also been criticized by foreign anti-whaling organizations. The government should reconsider its scientific whaling program and focus on protecting whaling traditions related to local cultures.
The Fisheries Agency plans to submit a new plan for scientific whaling to the IWC Scientific Committee in early November. Once it has submitted a plan for research involving harvesting whales to the organization, Japan will have passed a point of no return.
Immediately after the International Court of Justice delivered the ruling against Japan’s whaling program, the pro-whaling association of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers handed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a resolution calling on the government to make efforts to resume research whaling.
Abe is elected from Yamaguchi Prefecture, home to Shimonoseki port, one of Japan's whaling hubs. But Abe should ensure that his administration will give serious consideration to Japan’s relations with other countries in making the final decision on the matter.
Japan is the only country that continues whaling on the pretext of scientific research. Japan’s strategy is designed to pave the way for the resumption of commercial whaling, which was suspended in the 1980s.
But the current situation offers no hope for the success of Japan’s bid to get the lifting of the moratorium on commercial whaling, which the IWC passed in 1982.
The Abe administration has stressed its commitment to “the rule of law” as one of the guiding principles for its foreign policy. If so, the administration should take the international court’s message very seriously.
It would be much better for Japan’s national interests if the government makes a quick and bold change in its policy toward whaling.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 21
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