We’ve done our best, so agree to disagree, says Japan’s whaling minister

Japan has done nothing wrong by sending its whaling fleet out on its annual Antarctic hunt and the world must agree to disagree on the issue, the country’s top whaling official said on Monday. Tokyo’s retooling of its hunt plan for the 2015/16 season, which cut the number of minke whales it takes by two-thirds to 333, made every effort to meet the objections, said Joji Morishita, Japan’s IWC Commissioner. The International Court of Justice said last year that Japan’s whaling in the Southern Ocean should stop and an International Whaling Committee panel said in April that Tokyo had yet to demonstrate a need for killing whales.

This does not mean that we will take all whales - exactly because we want to have sustainable whaling, we want to have a healthy whale population.

Joji Morishita, Japan’s IWC Commissioner

“We did our best to try to meet the criteria established by the International Court of Justice and we have decided to implement our research plan, because we are confident that we completed the scientific homework as well as … meeting the ICJ requirement,” Morishita said. Meanwhile, New Zealand led an international protest on Monday against Japan’s plans to resume killing whales in the Southern Ocean, while Australia said it was considering further legal action. Prime Minister John Key said New Zealand’s ambassador to Tokyo delivered a “strong” formal message from 33 countries, including the United States and Australia, to Japan.

We consider that there is no scientific basis for the slaughter of whales and strongly urge the government of Japan not to allow it to go ahead.

New Zealand prime minister John Key