Japan yesterday said that it plans to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial whaling from July, abandoning a decades-old campaign to persuade the commission to allow it to hunt whales commercially.
The announcement drew criticism from anti-whaling groups and others, with Australia saying that it was “extremely disappointed” and New Zealand regretting the resumption of the “outdated and unnecessary” commercial killing of whales.
Japan’s commercial whaling would be limited to its own territorial waters and its exclusive economic zone, said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who made the announcement at a news conference after a Cabinet decision on Tuesday.
Photo: AP / Kyodo News
“Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere,” Suga said in a statement.
The decision followed the commission’s latest rejection of its bid to resume commercial whaling at a meeting in September last year, which Suga said showed that it was impossible to bridge the gap between whaling and anti-whaling advocates.
The decision — an unusual step for Japan, which stresses multilateralism — sparked swift criticism.
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters welcomed Japan’s decision to halt whaling in the Southern Ocean, but said he was disappointed with the decision to resume commercial whaling in its exclusive economic zone.
“Whaling is an outdated and unnecessary practice. We continue to hope Japan eventually reconsiders its position and will cease all whaling in order to advance the protection of the ocean’s ecosystems,” Peters said in a statement.
Australia urged Japan to return to the commission “as a matter of priority,” Australian Minister of the Environment Melissa Price said in a statement.
“The Australian government is extremely disappointed,” Price added. “Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling.”
Japan has long defied such protests to conduct what it calls scientific research whaling, having repeatedly said that its ultimate goal was to whale commercially again.
The International Court of Justice in 2014 ruled that Japan should halt its Antarctic whaling.
Japan suspended its hunt for one season to retool its whaling program with measures such as cutting the number of whales and species targeted, but resumed hunting in the 2015-2016 season, capping its Antarctic catch with a quota of 333 whales annually.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RSS