Japan Repeats Threat to Quit Whaling Body

Japan today repeated its long-standing threat to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) unless the body shifts its focus from conserving whales to regulating their slaughter.

The warning came on the final day of a three-day meeting in Tokyo attended by IWC members who oppose the 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling.

Only 35 of the IWC's 72 members took part in the meeting, with 26 anti-whaling countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, deciding to stay away. Their boycott drew an angry reaction from the pro-whaling nations, which accused them of "imperialism".

A draft statement said: "Imposing moral and ethical judgments that affect our right to use resources in spite of scientific evidence is imperialism."

Joji Morishita, a Japanese IWC commissioner, said reform of the IWC must begin before its next conference in Alaska in May. "From Anchorage, some sort of positive movement needs to take place or we will have to rethink our options," he told reporters.

He added that Tokyo's options included leaving the commission, a move favoured by nationalist politicians. "That has been on the table for years, just like all the other options," he said.

But Mr Morishita later appeared to soften his stance, asking: "If we were going to leave the IWC, would we still be trying to improve it?"

The Tokyo meeting called for secret ballots at future IWC meetings, a move conservationists regard as an attempt to put undue pressure on poorer countries to vote alongside Japan for the resumption of commercial whaling.

Campaigners were also angered by Japan's plans to ask the IWC for permission to hunt minke whales in its coastal waters. In what it described as a major concession, Japan said the whales could be deemed to fall within its existing annual allowance of 220 minkes, which it hunts for so-called scientific research purposes.

Greenpeace said Japan had persevered with the request despite there being "virtually no market, no scientific justification, and no community benefit" in hunting the whales.

It said in a statement: "This is a clear sign that 'normalisation of the IWC' simply means continuing with the current situation - catch as many whales as possible. No new ideas have come from this meeting."