In 2018 the Japanese Government left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) – turning their back on global whale conservation. This forced an end to their whaling program in our Southern Oceans, a win for our whales. Australians have been fighting for decades to get the whalers out of the Antarctic.
But this victory came at a cost, with Japan resuming commercial whaling in 2019 for the first time in 30 years!
Since 2019, Japanese whalers have hunted an annual self allocated quota of sei, Bryde’s and minke whales in their own waters.
And in 2024 they expanded this quota again to include the fin whale, the second largest mammal on the planet.
This is in addition to building a vast new whaling ‘mothership’, the Kangei Maru, capable of whaling the waters of the Southern Ocean.
However, whilst Japan may have left the IWC their Japan’s whaling can’t escape the reach of international law. Legal analysis we commissioned with our colleagues at ifaw shows that Japan is not free to hunt and kill our ocean giants now that they’ve quit the IWC.
They are still bound by a web of duties under international law. If they don’t meet these obligations they open themselves up to legal challenge (the legal advice is available to read in full here).
Countries like Australia that are opposed to whaling must step up once again – Japan can’t be allowed to continue to undertake commercial whaling unchallenged.
Tell Japan to abandon whaling rather than the rule of international law.
Image © Australian Customs Service