Response to IWC Decision

31 May 2007
59th Annual Meeting of the IWC,
Anchorage, Alaska, United States

Statement from Japan's Alternate Whaling Commissioner Mr Joji Morishita

Response to IWC Decision

It is extremely disappointing that the International Whaling Commission chose not to support our proposal for quota for our traditional hunters.

Countries who spoke in favour of our proposal agreed it was fully sustainable and would have alleviated the cultural, social and economic distress caused by the moratorium to these four traditional whaling communities.

Japan provided a very, very, very reasonable proposal. It was almost identical to that of the United States which received unanimous support from the Commission yesterday.

Those countries that voted in favour of the Alaskan quota supported scientific management, sustainable use and traditional practices.

Today, they took a u-turn. Rejection of our proposal was not anti-whaling, it was anti-Japan.

Japan supported the Alaskan proposal and worked behind the scenes to encourage other sustainable-use countries to also support it. We played a key role in the United States achieving its quota renewal. The US Government could have persuaded its allies to support or abstain on our proposal but chose not to. Even if we asked for just one whale, we believe our proposal would have been rejected.

These two IWC decisions are clearly inconsistent with each other. If the IWC cannot approve sustainable proposals in a fair manner, there is little reason to make proposals in the future. If they can reject this, they can reject anything.

We have been working to find ways of normalizing the IWC and bringing it back to a proper resource management organisation where it manages sustainable whaling. We have encouraged greater respect for other members' points of view and for others to support cultural diversity.

It is becoming extremely difficult to find ways in which we can have faith in this organisation in the future. This hypocrisy leads us to seriously question the nature by which Japan will continue participating at this forum.

We are fast running out of ideas on how to make the IWC work.

ENDS

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