Japan likely to resume whaling after leaving IWC: Reports

Japan is to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling next year, a report claimed on Thursday, in a move that drew condemnation from Australia, with other anti-whaling nations expected to follow suit.

Japan will inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year, Kyodo news agency said, months after the body rejected its latest bid to resume commercial whaling.

Kyodo quoted a government source as saying that Japan was unlikely to catch whales in the "Antarctic Ocean" after its withdrawal. This is understood to refer to the Southern Ocean.

Tokyo is considering allowing commercial whaling only in seas near Japan as well as the country's exclusive economic zone, the government source said.

A fisheries agency official denied the report, however, insisting no decision had been taken on whether to withdraw from the IWC, which banned commercial whaling in 1986.

Australian Environment Minister Melissa Price said while the Australian Government would "strongly prefer" Japan remain a party to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the IWC, the decision to withdraw "is a matter for Japan".

Japan has previously threatened to quit the IWC, arguing that the moratorium was supposed to be a temporary measure and accusing the IWC of abandoning its original purpose – managing the sustainable use of global whale stocks.

Japanese officials claim that populations of certain types of whale – such as the minke – have recovered sufficiently to allow the resumption of “sustainable” hunting.

Japan faced criticism earlier this year after reporting that its whaling fleet had killed 122 pregnant whales during its annual research hunt in the Southern Ocean last winter. Of the 333 minke whales caught during the four-month expedition, 181 were female – including 53 juveniles.

In 2014, the international court of justice ordered Japan to halt its annual hunts in the Southern Ocean after concluding that they were not, as Japanese officials had claimed, conducted for scientific research.

But Japan resumed whaling in the region two years later under a revamped programme that included reducing its catch quota by about two-thirds.

Japan would join Iceland and Norway in openly defying the ban on commercial whale hunting.