Japan conducted its first commercial whale hunts in more than three decades on Monday, dismissing international outrage over its decision to resume a practice that activists call inhumane and obsolete.
Here are some key dates related to Japanese whaling.
Ancient tradition
Japanese fishermen are believed to have started whaling in the 12th century, hunting the giant sea creatures with harpoons, according to the Japan Whaling Association.
In the early 1600s, organised whaling begins in the western town of Taiji, now better known as a dolphin-hunting port that gained global attention after the 2009 documentary “The Cove”.
Whaling base
In 1906, a fully-fledged whaling base is built in Ayukawa, Miyagi, heralding the nation’s modern era of whaling.
At its peak in the 1950s, some 2,000 whales are landed at the port amid growing demand for their meat as a key source of protein in the desperately poor years following World War II.
In 2011, a tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake destroys the base.
Japan joins the IWC
In 1951, Japan -- by now one of the world’s largest whaling countries -- joins the International Whaling Commission, established in 1946 to conserve and manage the world’s whale and cetacean population.
Research whaling
In 1987, Japan begins “scientific research” whaling in the Antarctic, a year after the IWC introduces a moratorium on commercial whaling.
In 1988, Tokyo stops commercial hunting of minke and sperm whales in Japanese coastal waters following the moratorium.
UN court decision
In 2014, the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), orders Tokyo to stop hunting in Antarctic waters, saying the project did not meet conventional scientific standards.
Tokyo cancels its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following season under a new programme that it says now has genuine scientific value. But the European Union and 12 other nations condemn Japan’s programme.
Commercial whaling bid rejected
In September 2018, the IWC rejects a bid by Japan to return to commercial whaling. Anti-whaling nations -- led by Australia, the European Union and the United States -- defeat Tokyo’s “Way Forward” proposal in a 41-to-27 vote.
Japan’s vice-minister for fisheries Masaaki Taniai says Tokyo would be “pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment of its position as a member of the IWC”.
IWC withdrawal
On December 26, 2018, Japan announces it is withdrawing from the IWC, triggering a firestorm of international criticism. The decision comes into effect on June 30, 2019.
Conservationists slam the move but some experts say the decision will likely sound the death knell for Japan’s whaling industry, given the shrinking market for whale meat in the country.
Back to the hunt
Japanese vessels begin commercial whale hunts in Japan’s territorial waters on the morning of July 1, 2019, catching their first whale by afternoon. — AFP
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