This was published 5 years ago
Australia must maintain pressure on Japan over whaling
Like shooting elephants or rhinoceroses in Africa for trophies, hunting whales for sashimi is an act of barbarism. Killing such an intelligent mammal betrays gratuitous cruelty and indifference to the fragile majesty of the natural world.
Yet Japan, a country that in many other ways is a model global citizen, has a political obsession with the ghastly pursuit. This week it indicated it would resume commercial whaling and leave the International Whaling Commission, the body that has enforced a global ban on whale hunting since 1982.
Japan has made a mockery of the International Whaling Commission for decades.Credit: Greenpeace
Australia has already described the decision as ‘‘regrettable’’, and conservation groups have warned that it threatens the world’s endangered whale population. The task, however, will be to try to bring Japan back into the fold or hopefully prevent it leaving.
Japan’s appetite for whale meat has fallen dramatically in the past 30years, but the whaling issue is not about any rational economic or food policy. It has become a symbol for some on the right of the Liberal Democratic Party of conservative values and Japan’s aspirations to assert itself on the world stage.
Japan has in fact made a mockery of the IWC for decades. It has hunted thousands of whales under the nonsensical fiction they were needed for ‘‘scientific research’’ but in fact used the by-products to supply fancy restaurants in Tokyo. It carried out many of these hunts in the Southern Ocean, on Australia’s doorstep.
Australia successfully challenged this program in the International Court of Justice in 2014, but Japan simply made some cosmetic changes and kept hunting. Japan then tried to change the voting rules of the IWC in conjunction with other whaling nations such as Iceland and Norway, hoping they would be granted an exception under a new voting system. It was the failure a few months ago of this attempt to rewrite the rules that appears to have provoked Japan to quit the body.
Japan’s latest announcement is an attempt to appease the bruised pride of its conservatives while minimising the damage to its reputation abroad from flouting environmental rules. The good news is that Japan has at least promised to end its fake scientific whaling program and stop hunting in the Southern Ocean, shifting its efforts to its exclusive economic zone in the North Pacific.
Yet it has failed to explain how many whales it plans to catch in its own waters. Japan argues whale populations have recovered thanks to the moratorium, and it is true that certain populations such as minke whales are no longer considered in immediate danger. Yet the science is far from settled. Whales are also under threat from climate change, pollution and collisions with commercial vessels. There is a risk of catching endangered whales by accident.
Australia must press Japan on these issues and maintain international support for a meaningful moratorium. It must hold Japan to its promise to cease whaling in the Antarctic, where Japan has cheekily just dispatched another whaling fleet for the summer. Australia has some sway as a close ally. Japan is acutely aware of the inconsistency in flouting this global treaty while defending others like the Kyoto protocol on climate change. It will not want to be seen as a global pariah.