Japan to withdraw from IWC to resume commercial whaling

Japan has announced its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) next year and will resume commercial hunting in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone from July.

The move on Wednesday came more than three months after the global body for the conservation of whales rejected a Tokyo-led proposal to lift a 32-year ban on the commercial hunting of the ocean mammals.

"We have decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume commercial whaling in July next year," Yoshihide Suga, the top spokesperson for the Japanese government, told reporters.

Suda said commercial whaling "will be limited to Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zones."

It will also cease whaling activities in the Antarctic Ocean, according to an official statement released Wednesday, and hunt species with so-called "healthy" population numbers.

"In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but also for a variety of other purposes," the statement said. "Engagement in whaling has been supporting local communities, and thereby developed the life and culture of using whales."

The announcement drew criticism from anti-whaling groups., activists and governments, with Australia saying it was "extremely disappointed" and New Zealand regretting the resumption of the "outdated and unnecessary" commercial killing of whales

Tokyo's move was widely expected as it had said it would undertake a "fundamental reassessment" of its IWC membership following the September vote, which guaranteed the body's 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling will continue.

Japan has defied international protests to conduct what it calls "scientific research whaling", has repeatedly said its ultimate goal is to whale commercially again.

In 2014, the International Court of Justice ordered it to halt its whaling programme in the Southern Ocean, also called the Antarctic Ocean, after determining that the hunting permits granted by authorities were not being used "for purposes of scientific research".

Tokyo suspended its hunt for one season to re-tool its whaling programme with measures such as cutting the number of whales and species targeted but resumed hunting in the 2015-2016 season. It caps its Antarctic catch with a quota of 333 whales annually.

Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium. But Japan has used a loophole to continue hunting whales legally since 1987 for what it claims is scientific research.

Iceland and Norway object to the moratorium and continue to hunt whales commercially without relying on science as an excuse.

While the Japanese political class has sought the resumption of commercial whaling activities, campaigners say eating whale is becoming "less and less popular."