David @ Tokyo

The Japanese media came alight with the news surrounding this year's 3rd JARPA II cruise, the first in which humpback whales were scheduled to be taken in the government backed programme.

The information available is that the IWC chair, Bill Hogarth of the US, visited Japan on the 11th of December and requested his counterparts at Japan's Fisheries Agency (JFA) to drop the humpback hunt as it would be an obstacle to successful progress at upcoming IWC normalization talks scheduled for March in England. Apparently "Hogarth has maintained a dialogue with his Japanese counterparts since the IWC meeting in June".

Leaders from JFA then paid a return visit to the US on the 19th, and relayed their intention to postpone the humpback hunt.

The decision was reportedly one made on the basis that Japan's aim is the normalization of the IWC, and leadership judged that including humpbacks in the JARPA research this year could be seen as provoking anti-whaling nations, where the species is a special favourite. Japan is also the current vice-chair of the IWC. However, the decision has been qualified with the condition that it will only apply so long as progress with IWC normalization is seen to be being made (as judged by Japan).

Foreign Minister Komura explained the details of the decision to his Australian counterpart over the phone of Friday evening (my rough translation):

"Minister Smith expressed his concern about Japan's research whaling, and said that they would like us to stop it. I explained to him that research whaling is perfectly legal. At the same time, we had a request from IWC Chair Hogarth, who said "I want to fix the IWC which is not fulfilling it's function. I want Japan, which is the vice-chair, to cooperate. I want Japan to reconsider it's hunting of humpback whales for as long as we are making efforts to fix the IWC". And because of this I relayed to Minister Smith that Japan "as the vice-chair wishes to cooperate in fixing the IWC. And regarding chair Hogarth's request about humpback whales, Japan has determined to postpone the hunt of humpback whales while it's judged that the IWC is making moves towards normalization."

"Chair Hogarth was thinking this could be for 1 to 2 years, but as for the Japanese government, it means the period of time during which the Japanese government judges that progress is being made towards normalization. If we are able to judge that there is no progress at all, then it means we will have a different situation".

While Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura denied that the decision was made out of consideration for Australia's recent complaints on the matter, Japanese news reports and general response in certain internet discussion forums have seen speculation that this move was a "cave in" to anti-whaling protest, particularly from Australia which had announced it would send a patrol vessel to monitor the Japanese research whaling fleet.

In subsequent reports, US officials were noted to have praised Japan's decision and IWC Secretariat Nicola Grandy also responded to Japanese media with a positive view of the move (my translation):

"It is an extremely good decision. It will bring a better atmosphere to future discussions".

"The chair country (USA) and Japan which is the vice-chair agreed to postpone the catch. The aim is to alleviated the heightened tensions that prevail amongst various governments at the current time".

However, in Japan the leading fisheries newspaper, the Minato Shinbun suggests that the move is a part of Japan's "last try" to normalize the IWC.

At 2channel, the forum erupted with hundreds of (largely misinformed) posters generally slamming the government for caving in to anti-whaling nation pressure, with many suggesting that it will only make the anti-whaling nations ask for more. Some criticised Prime Minister Fukuda (already suffering in the opinion polls), others blamed Japan's "weak" foreign ministry, although some more attentive people noted that on this occasion it was the Fisheries Agency that had agreed with the US on the matter.


The full Minato Shinbun article isn't available online so I've not seen it, but coming from the marine resource utilization realm, I imagine the author is likely as tired with endless attempts at IWC normalization as I am.

From the perspective of upcoming IWC talks, the government's judgment that it is in it's best interest to freeze the JARPA humpback quota ahead of talks aimed at IWC normalization is reasonable.

However, while compromising on the humpback issue may bring a "better" atmosphere to discussions on the IWC future, as Secretary Grandy suggests, I believe this alone will not greatly improve Japan's situation.

Further, it was surely clear that (irrespective of the actual details) agreeing to put off the humpback hunt would be interpreted as a "cave", which will only see anti-whaling campaigners seek to gain more. Japan need not "give" any further, but the move means there is perhaps even less reason to expect offers of compromise from those organizing anti-whaling campaigns in the west.

The core problems with the IWC remain, and there is no indication from any party about how they may be prepared to compromise in order to see the situation resolved. With 75% of member nations required to agree for the IWC to be able to function as a management organization, unless there are significant compromises made by one side or the other (or both), the IWC paralysis will continue.

Labels: IWC Normalization