Japan told an International Whaling Commission meeting Wednesday that it will resume its so-called research whaling in the Antarctic next fiscal year, while vowing to improve the transparency of the activities over which it lost an international court case earlier this year.
After the International Court of Justice ordered in March that the whaling be halted, ruling it was not for scientific research purposes as claimed by Tokyo, Japan canceled its annual Antarctic whaling voyage for fiscal 2014.
During the meeting in Slovenia, a Japanese official said the ICJ ruling did not deny research whaling in itself and Japan will propose a new whaling plan by taking heed of what the ICJ said in the ruling. Japan also said it will continue its "research whaling" in the Northwestern Pacific, which is not covered by the ICJ order, on a reduced scale.