TOKYO, May 24, Reuter - Japan has decided to remain a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to lobby against the creation of a whale sanctuary in the Antarctic, Farm Minister Masami Tanabu said on Monday.
Japan threatened to quit the IWC after commission delegates voted to extend a global ban on whaling for another year at their annual conference in Kyoto, western Japan, in mid-May.
Although the commission decided to put off voting on the controversial French proposal for a whale sanctuary, it decided to set up a working group to examine the suggestion before its meeting next year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Tanabu told parliament on Monday that, despite its threats, Japan would not leave the IWC.
``We've got to think about ways of preventing the creation of the sanctuary,'' he said. ``What we have to do now is try to rally support to our side within the IWC to oppose (the sanctuary).''
Japan vehemently opposes the sanctuary proposal. Despite the IWC's global moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan is currently allowed to catch several hundred minke whales in the Antarctic.
This is ostensibly done for research purposes but most of the meat ends up in restaurants. The designation of the Antarctic as a sanctuary would cut off Japan's supply.
Japan, the world's biggest consumer of whalemeat, insists that successive research missions to the Antarctic have shown that Minke stocks in some areas have recovered enough to sustain the hunting of 2,000 each year without endangering the species.
According to IWC data, the Minke population was estimated at 761,000 in the Antarctic Ocean, 87,000 in the northeast Atlantic and 25,000 in the north Pacific.