Japan says that next year it will resume a scientific whaling program despite a resolution adopted recently by the International Whaling Commission that put tighter controls of scientific whaling.
Proposed by New Zealand, the non-binding resolution was based on criteria the U.N.'s International Court of Justice considered earlier this year in issuing a ruling that Japan's present whaling program does not meet the requirements for scientific whaling.
Commercial whaling is prohibited in a 31-million-square-mile region around Antarctica known as the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under a 1986 whaling moratorium signed by Japan and other countries.
However, under the moratorium countries are allowed to conduct limited whaling activities for "scientific purposes."
Japan says it has been taking minke whales, a species covered under the moratorium, for that purpose.
Activists have disputed that claim, alleging Japan was using the scientific whaling loophole to harvest and sell whale meat in Japanese restaurants and stores.
Japan was given scientific permits last year allowing it to kill 935 Antarctic minke whales, 50 humpback whales and 50 fin whales.
"You don't kill 935 whales in a year to conduct scientific research," said Bill Campbell, who led Australia's presentation to the International Court of Justice when Australia and New Zealand sued Japan in an effort to stop their whaling program. "You don't even need to kill one whale to conduct scientific research."
Japanese officials at a recent International Whaling Commission meeting said their government would revamp their scientific program taking into account "international law and scientific evidence" and would submit a revised proposal to the commission's scientific committees later this year, in preparation for resuming their scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean next year.
The Japan Whaling Association has been vocal in its insistence on the country being allowed to continue whaling activities, calling it important to Japan's culture.
"Asking Japan to abandon this part of its culture would compare to Australians being asked to stop eating meat pies, Americans being asked to stop eating hamburgers, and the English being asked to go without fish and chips," the association says on its website. "Attitudes toward animals are a part of national cultures. No nations should try to impose their attitudes on others."
International opposition continues, though, with New Zealand's government condemning what it characterizes as "pointless and offensive" whaling by Japan.
In the case before the International Court of Justice, it had joined Australia in asking the court to withhold permits for any future whaling activities by the Japanese whaling fleet.
That request is still under consideration by the court, with a decision expected in the coming months.
