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Japan finally accepts ICJ ruling applies to all scientific whaling

Japan finally accepts ICJ ruling applies to all scientific whaling

Has Japan finally accepted that the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 2014 ruling applies to all its scientific whaling and not just the slaughter of whales in the Antarctic? The Japan Times is reporting that the Fisheries Agency will “carry out a comprehensive review of its research whaling in the northwestern Pacific Ocean from fiscal…

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As Japan launches its new whaling programme, is the fleet sailing into new legal jeopardy?

Seemingly driven by spurious nationalistic pride and despite their failure to gain the support of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and, in contempt of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet is leaving its homeport today, December 1st. But the fleet may not simply be sailing into the choppy waters of the…

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Japanese company guilty of illegal whaling in Australian sanctuary

A court in Sydney, Australia has imposed a AUS$1 million fine ($USD 700k, £465k) on a Japanese company over its whaling activities in the Australian Whale Santuary in Antarctica. The company, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, was found guilty of killing whales on four separate visits between December 2008 and March 2014, despite a previous court ruling…

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Japanese campaign groups critical of government whale hunting

In a defiant move, a number of campaigning organisations within Japan have issued a statement against the country’s whaling activities. The groups are critical of the Japanese government’s decision to ignore a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that ordered Japan’s scientific whale hunts in the Antarctic to stop on the grounds that…

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Australian government critical of Japan’s attempt to avoid court ban on whaling

Australia’s Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt,  has condemned Japanese whaling and the country’s latest attempts to ignore an international court ban on its so-called scientific hunts in the Antarctic. In March 2014, Australia was instrumental in a court action against these ‘research’ hunts. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague ordered Japan to…

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Japan rejects international law on whaling

Within only a few days of being elected to the United Nations Security Council, it has come to light that Japan has formally rejected the ICJ with respect to wildlife and natural resources, effectively placing itself outside of the same rules that bound most of the United Nations parties. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that…

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Japanese whale hunt ships return empty handed

For the first time in many years, Japanese whaling ships have returned from their latest voyage without hunting any whales due to a UN court ban imposed in 2014. According to reports in Japan, the two vessels arrived back in the port at Shimonoseki city empty handed for the first time since 1987 when Japan…

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Japan PM to boost efforts to restart whaling in the Antarctic

Japan’s prime minister has told the Japanese parliament he will boost his efforts toward restarting commercial whaling despite a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice (the UN’s highest court) that Tokyo must stop killing whales in the Antarctic. “I want to aim for the resumption of commercial whaling by conducting whaling research in…

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