Activists welcome ruling demanding more evidence from Japan on lethal 'research whaling'
Environmental activists have welcomed the decision by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to demand more evidence from Japan to support its plan to resume lethal "research whaling" in the Southern Ocean.
A panel set up by the commission examined Japan's request to be permitted to catch 333 minke whales a year, down from the target of 1,035 it has harpooned in previous years, ruled that the "current proposal does not demonstrate the need for lethal sampling".
Japan claims the whales need to be killed to enable scientists to determine sustainable catch quotas and, ultimately, a return to commercial whaling.
A spokesman for the fisheries ministry in Tokyo told the South China Morning Post that it will review the IWC decision and make revisions to the proposal so it can be submitted to a full meeting of the IWC's scientific committee scheduled for May.
Joji Morishita, Japan's commissioner to the IWC, said he and his fellow officials would do their best to meet the commission's demands.
"We respect their recommendations and we will make the best effort to respond to their recommendations, in good faith and in a sincere manner," Morishita told journalists in Tokyo.
