Download This PaperUnderstanding Japan’s Resumption of Commercial Whaling under International Law
The Environmental Rule of Law for Oceans: Designing Legal Solutions (Cambridge University Press 2023).
19 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2020 Last revised: 28 Feb 2023
Date Written: November 1, 2019
Abstract
Japan officially withdrew from the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) on 1 July 2019 and resumed commercial whaling within its coastal waters for the first time in nearly 31 years. This chapter analyzes the reasons for Japan’s withdrawal from the ICRW and its potential implications under international law. It provides an overview of the Japanese legal system governing marine environmental conservation and Japan’s approach towards the management, conservation, and sustainable use of marine living resources, including whales. Commercial whaling is part of the broader international environmental law debate: ensuring environmental protection while facilitating sustainable use of the natural resources of the sea. Discussions on promoting sustainable whaling are needed. The answer may be, against popular opinion in some countries, to allow limited, but internationally-monitored, whaling in specific locations, while stopping whaling altogether in other locations altogether. Such approach could be adjusted based on independent and politically uncompromised scientific evidence. As scientific knowledge advances and whale stock management theories become more complex, scientific advice may not necessarily produce clear-cut answers. In situations of scientific uncertainty, the principle of precaution can allow to make rational decisions – provided the principle is not misinterpreted and transformed into a principle of inaction. The law must urgently keep pace with the many and multifaceted challenges facing the world’s oceans. Meaningful international cooperation to ensure the sustainability of commercial whaling is indispensable.
Keywords: Whaling; Japan; ICRW; IWC; UNCLOS; Sustainable Use; Meaningful Cooperation; Environmental Protection; Conservation; Precautionary Approach
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