Japan Will Resume Antarctic Whaling, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Vows

A few months after being forced to halt Japan's Antarctic whaling operation, Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today promised parliament that he would fight the UN to restart his country's commercial whaling industry.

While Abe didn't exactly clearly state what his strategy would be, his comments are notable because they acknowledge that Japanese whalers killing the name of "scientific research" was really just a means of supporting the commercial whaling market.

"I want to aim for the resumption of commercial whaling by conducting whaling research in order to obtain scientific data indispensable for the management of whale resources," Abe told a parliamentary commission, per the AFP, promising to get a better read on why the international community is largely opposed to Japan's annual whale harvest.

Whaling is largely banned worldwide, with exceptions made for traditional hunts and scientific research. That latter exception has powered Japan's whaling industry for decades, even if it's little more than a wink-and-a-nod argument.

In March, the International Court of Justice acknowledged that fact, ruling that Japan's legal basis for whaling in the Antarctic, known as JARPA II, did little to ensure that the whale take was minimized, that killed whales were actually used for scientific research, or that said research was actually productive.

"The court ruled that JARPA II 'involves activities that can broadly be characterized as scientific research,' but as a whole, the reason Japan kills whales is not 'for purposes of scientific research,'" I wrote at the time.

That ruling didn't affect Japan's whaling activities in the North Pacific, which fall under a separate legal framework. The ICJ also didn't prevent Japan from trying to rework JARPA II to more narrowly limit whaling to scientific purposes, which is likely the straightest path forward for Abe.

But Abe's comments, which acknowledge that the point of research whaling is to fuel the commercial whale market, suggest that any revised scientific whaling plan needs be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, the other tack Abe may take is to focus on the traditional aspect of Japanese whaling.

"It it regrettable that this part of Japanese culture is not understood," Abe said today.

While Japanese whaling is certainly steeped in tradition, it's been a declining market in recent years. Younger generations have lost interest in eating whale, and the whole industry has been kept afloat by government subsidies.

At its peak, Japan was estimated to take about 1,000 whales a year from the Antarctic, as alleged by Australia's original lawsuit in the ICJ. With demand declining, Japan may find success arguing for a more restricted take, which would be easier to reconcile with the whaling program's scientific output. Regardless, one thing is clear: the end goal of Japan's whaling industry isn't research for research's sake, but to bring whale meat to market.