TOKYO, Dec 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Japan is considering pulling out of the
International Whaling Commission (IWC), officials told AFP on Thursday, as
Tokyo reportedly gears up to resume commercial whaling activity next year.
Such a move would spark international criticism against Japan over whale
conservation and deepen the divide between anti- and pro-whaling countries.
“We are considering all options” including the possibility of withdrawal
from the 89-member IWC, Fisheries Agency official Yuki Morita told AFP.
Another official at the foreign ministry confirmed “all options are on the
table but nothing formal has been decided yet”.
Both stressed Tokyo has not yet changed its whaling policy but Japan
threatened to pull out of the IWC in September when the commission rejected
its bid to return to commercial whaling.
Citing unnamed government sources, local news agency Kyodo said a formal
decision to withdraw from the IWC would come by the end of the year.
After a tense September vote in Brazil, the IWC rejected Japan’s bid to
return to commercial whaling, prompting vice-minister for fisheries Masaaki
Taniai to say Tokyo would be “pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment
of its position as a member of the IWC”.
Anti-whaling nations — led by Australia, the European Union and the United
States — defeated Japan’s “Way Forward” proposal in a 41-to-27 vote.
Following the ballot, Japan’s IWC commissioner Joji Morishita said
differences with anti-whaling nations were “very clear” and Japan would now
plan its “next steps”.
The IWC was established in 1946 to conserve and manage the world’s whale
and cetacean population. It introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in
1986 after some species had been fished to near extinction.
Japan insists whale stocks have now recovered sufficiently to allow
commercial hunting to resume.
Tokyo currently observes the moratorium but exploits a loophole to kill
hundreds of whales every year for “scientific purposes” as well as to sell
the meat.
According to Kyodo News, the country is unlikely to catch whales in the
Antarctic Ocean even if it did withdraw from the IWC, as it is eyeing
commercial whaling only in seas near Japan and its exclusive economic zone.
Iceland, along with Norway, openly defies the IWC’s 1986 ban on commercial
whale hunting.v