Whaling in Japan

As a result, Japanese whaling will now only take place in Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zones,[8][9] moving away from the high seas in order to avoid trade violations under CITES.

[12] The UN's International Court of Justice, in addition to other countries, scientists, and environmental organizations, consider the Japanese research program to be unnecessary and lacking scientific merit, and describe it as a thinly disguised commercial whaling operation.

[38] North Pacific right whales followed by grays and humpbacks were considered to be the primary targets, and the industries were devastating to the stocks[39] as catch quantities had been reduced dramatically in relatively short periods.

In 1861, the Tokugawa shogunate dispatched Nakahama Manjirō to the Bonin Islands on a Western-style schooner to practice whaling in the manner of the Western or "Yankee" whalers that were active in the West Pacific at that time.

[50][51] In the early 20th century, Jūrō Oka dominated the whale meat market in Japan with assistance and instruction from Norwegian whalers and their leased or purchased ships.

Ocean pollution from the whaling stations, including large quantities of oil and blood runoff, angered the local fishermen and threatened their own fishing grounds.

[64] During the Second World War, Japan's whaling was significantly limited to more familiar hunting grounds, such as the Bonin Islands, to provide meat and oil for domestic and military use.

[65][66] General Douglas MacArthur encouraged the surrendered Japan to continue whaling in order to provide a cheap source of meat to starving people (and millions of dollars in oil for the US and Europe).

Coonan expressed disapproval of McCracken in his reports of violated regulations and waste dumped over the side when the fleet began killing whales faster than they could be processed.

Notwithstanding anything contained in this Convention any Contracting Government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorizing that national to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit, and the killing, taking, and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be exempt from the operation of this Convention.

For example, a large private whaling fleet was owned (through a variety of holding companies and flags of convenience) by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and gained notoriety for ignoring all limits of size and species.

In particular the 1971 Pelly Amendment to the US Fishermen's Protection Act gives the US president legal authority to prohibit importation of fish products from any nation that is diminishing the effectiveness of fisheries conservation programs.

In addition, Japan will be barred from any future allocations of fishing privileges for any other species, including Pacific cod, until the Secretary of Commerce determines that the situation has been corrected.

Separate from millions in overseas development aid, membership fees, paid flights, hotel stays and spending money was all provided, by Japan, to gain the support of IWC delegates.

The replacement "NEWREP-A" plan, scheduled to commence in December 2015, covered a larger area of the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic, and 3,996 whales were to be targeted over 12 years, which is fewer than in previous seasons.

Additional regulations from the United Nations International Maritime Organization took effect on August 1, 2011, prohibiting ships using heavy oil from navigation in the Antarctic Treaty System area to prevent pollution.

Environmental organizations criticized the trade and expressed doubts that Japanese markets could absorb the increase in supply as thousands of tonnes of whale meat remained in cold storage in Japan.

[citation needed] The first whale watching in Japan was conducted in the Bonin Islands in 1998 by a group called Geisharen (鯨者連), which was formed by groups of domestic and international people including both domestic and international celebrities and notable cetacean researchers and conservationists such as Roger Payne, Erich Hoyt, Richard Oliver, Jim Darling, John Ford, Kyusoku Iwamoto (cartoonist), Hutoushiki Ueki (science writer), Nobuyuki Miyazaki (head chief of the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute of The University of Tokyo), Nobuaki Mochizuki (one of the world's first whale photographers to record a living North Pacific right whale underwater in 1990 in Bonin Islands), Junko Sakuma (freelancer), and so on.

Signatories to the letter included Sylvia Earle (former Chief Scientist of the NOAA), Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara (former President of the European Cetacean Society) and Roger Payne (founder of the Ocean Alliance).

[195] In 2007, Kyokuyo and Maruha, two of Japan's four largest fishing companies, decided to end their sales of whale meat due to pressure from partners and environmental groups in the US.

In response, the IWC voted and concluded on September 18, 2014, that "Japan should abide by an International Court of Justice ruling", but Japanese officials vowed to continue whale hunting in the Antarctic in 2015.

In 1994, Australia claimed a 200-nautical-mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the Australian Antarctic Territory, which also includes a southerly portion of the IWC Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

[216] The Australian government also used that opportunity to reject ICR's scientific research claims by calling them "without foundation", and declaring that "You do not have to kill a whale in the Southern Ocean to gain a deeper understanding of it.

"[217] In late 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia restated official objections to Japan's whaling programs and threatened to take legal action through international courts.

[222] The New Zealand government lodged a "Declaration of Intervention" with the ICJ on February 6, 2013,[223] in which it deemed Japan as ineligible for a Special Permit that would allow whaling on the basis of scientific research.

The captain of the Steve Irwin, Paul Watson, claimed to have been hit in the chest by a bullet from a Japanese whaling ship crewmember, and a piece of metal was found lodged into his bullet-proof vest he was wearing at the time.

[237][238][239] In 2008, two Greenpeace anti-whaling activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, also called the Tokyo Two were arrested and put on trial after trying to expose what they considered a theft ring within the whaling industry.

[249] Atsushi Ishii, Japanese political scientist and professor at Tohoku University's Center for Northeast Asian Studies stated in his 2011 book Kaitai Shinso: Hogei Ronso ("Anatomy of the Whaling Debate"), that Japan used the activities by conservationists like Sea Shepherd as a face-saving excuse to stop the unprofitable Antarctic hunt.

Ishii asserts that the activities of environmental and animal rights activists were actually counterproductive because they fueled nationalism and increased the demand for whale meat in Japan.

A week before that IWC meeting, Japan hosted delegates from Angola, Cambodia, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ghana, Laos, Malawi, Palau, Tanzania and Vanuatu in Tokyo.