May 28, 2019 — After a 30-year break, Japan will resume commercial whaling in July.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced on 26 December, 2018, the country would withdraw from the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). The announcement was timed to meet a six-month notification requirement.
By beating a 1 January deadline for notifying the U.S. State Department – which in turn notified the convention’s governing body, the International Whaling Commission (ICW) – Japan is able to resume whaling this July.
The relevant text comes from Article 11 of the convention, stipulating the timing for any country withdrawing from the ICRW.
“Any Contracting Government may withdraw from this Convention on 30th June, of any year by giving notice on or before 1 January, of the same year to the depository government [the USA], which upon receipt of such a notice shall at once communicate it to the other contracting governments,” it states.
The move was taken in frustration with the IWC, which has abandoned its originally-stated purpose of scientific management of the whale stock as a harvestable resource, according to Japan.
“Recognizing that the whale stocks are susceptible of natural increases if whaling is properly regulated, and that increases in the size of whale stocks will permit increases in the number of whales which may be captured without endangering these natural resources,” the convention states.