Japan to Quit IWC to Resume Commercial Whaling

December 20, 2018

Tokyo--The Japanese government has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial whaling after a 30-year hiatus, informed sources said Thursday.

Countries opposing whale hunting are expected to denounce the Japanese move.

But the government finds it wasteful to engage in unproductive discussions at the IWC over commercial whaling any longer, given the unchanged situation in which antiwhaling nations reject Japan's demand that a proper level of commercial whaling be justified to allow the country to protect its whale-eating food culture, the sources said.

It is quite unusual for Japan to secede from an international organization.

According to the sources, the government will announce the decision to quit the IWC next week and inform the commission of the decision by Jan. 1.

After the withdrawal, Japan will have no right to vote at the IWC's biennial general meetings. But the government plans to continue to attend as an observer Scientific Committee meetings to assess whale stocks.

At present, Japan catches some 630 minke whales a year in the Antarctic Ocean and the northwestern Pacific Ocean for scientific purposes.

Once leaving the IWC, Japan cannot catch any whale around the Antarctica under an international accord. Therefore, the country's commercial whaling would resumed in the northwestern Pacific including seas off its coast, the sources said.

Joining the IWC in 1951, Japan suspended commercial whaling in April 1988 in the wake of the commission's "moratorium" decision on a pause in whale hunting for commercial purposes taking effect in 1986 amid concerns over resource depletion.

Meanwhile, Japan started the research whaling in 1987 upon IWC approval to collect scientific data.

At the latest IWC general meeting in Florianopolis, southern Brazil, in September, Japan made a proposal seeking the restart of commercial whaling. After the proposal was voted down at the conference, the Japanese delegation suggested the possibility of quitting the IWC.

Currently, Iceland and Norway are conducting commercial whaling, either under objection to the moratorium decision or under reservation to it. Canada, a strong opponent of whaling, is not a member of the IWC but taking part in the committee. Jiji Press