Japanese whaling not for science, rules UN Int. Court of Justice

Second Summer

Second Summer

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Reaction score
9,028
Location
Oxfordshire, UK
Lifestyle
  1. Vegan
The UN’s top court ruled on Monday to temporarily halt Japan’s whaling program in Antarctic waters, in a case brought against the country by Australia and environmental groups.

Presiding Judge Peter Tomka at the International Court of Justice said that the court’s 16-member panel decided that Japan has not justified the large number of minke whales it takes under its program, while failing to meet much smaller targets for fin and humpback whales.

The court ordered a halt to the issuing of whaling permits until the program is redesigned.
Click to expand...
Full article: Japanese whaling not for science, rules UN International Court of Justice (The Independent, 31. March, 2014)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trinity
From a more in-depth article:
“It was no coincidence that Japan only started to issue special permits authorizing large-scale so-called ‘scientific whaling’ immediately after the moratorium on whaling for commercial purposes came into effect,” Australia said in its complaint. The permits “were but a ruse to enable the continuation of whaling by Japan.”
Click to expand...
Full article: Japan Ordered to End Whaling as Hunt Is Not Science, Court Rules (BloomberBusinessWeek, 31. March 2014)
 
But Japan argued that Australia's case was an attempt to use the court to impose its cultural standards on Japan, rather than any violation of international law.
Click to expand...

I still think this is partly about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
Well, they're a proud lot, and to be the only country to have a nuclear bomb dropped on them, in anger, and not just one, but two, I think brings out some hatred of the west....surely you can see that....culturally they perhaps don't care that much for animals generally, and less about sea life, but they see the nuclear bomb droppers like whales.
 
Well, national pride certainly plays a role. I think this little article nicely sums up many of the reasons why the Japanese are so intent on whaling:
http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/whale-wars/about-whaling/why-japanese-hunt-whales.htm

But you may have a point about the Japanese in general not caring too much for animals. Or maybe that is just my cultural bias. They do seem somewhat food-macho, a bit like you're more masculine if you're able to consume gross foods, strong drink, exotic animals, polar bear penises, unicorns etc. Such an ability can of course be a survival necessity in times of need. (E.g. like in the thread I posted a few months ago about the Japanese soldiers who survived in the Philippine bush for decades after the WW2 capitulation, fighting their own war.)
 
Whales get "obviously disappointed" if they find a whaling ship and it won't harpoon them.

I know this to be true because I was told it by a woman who claimed to be an Inuit.
 
Top Bottom