A Japanese whaling ship has returned home to southwestern Honshu after almost meeting its annual quota, ending the operator's commercial whaling season. Operator Kyodo Senpaku Co. said its main factory ship Nisshin Maru returned to its home port of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, on Friday after ...
Tokyo court rules against 2016 deportation order for 'Cove' dolphin activist Ric O'Barry
The Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday against a government deportation order issued to a U.S. activist opposing dolphin hunts when he tried to enter Japan three years ago. The government had argued that when Richard "Ric" O'Barry, 79, who featured in the Oscar-winning documentary "The ...
Boris Johnson's dismay over whaling
Britain's prime minister shouldn't allow the U.K.-Japan relationship to be unduly defined by a still important but strategically irrelevant issue like whaling.
Japan nears catch quota for minke whales as hunt resumes off Hokkaido
Japanese whaling ships on Monday resumed hunting minke whales in coastal areas off Hokkaido, and are likely to reach their catch quota later this month. Since restarting commercial whaling in July for the first time in 31 years, the government has set a catch quota ...
Fleet of boats return empty on first day of Taiji's dolphin hunting season
The hunting season for dolphins using a controversial "drive-hunting" method began Sunday in the whaling town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture, this time without the usual protests from animal-rights groups. While local police officers were on high alert for anti-whaling campaigns, 12 boats left the ...
Japan's Fisheries Agency to seek ¥5.1 billion for commercial whaling
The Fisheries Agency plans to seek ¥5.1 billion for commercial whaling from the government in fiscal 2020, according to a draft of its budget request submitted to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday. The LDP approved the draft. The amount to be sought for ...
Boris Johnson assures Abe of smooth Brexit at G7, seeking to calm Japan firms' concerns
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe got assurances Monday from his British counterpart Boris Johnson that he will aim for a smooth Brexit. In his first meeting since Johnson became prime minister in July, Abe called for an "orderly" departure from the European Union as Tokyo has ...
Japan under pressure from CITES over sales of meat from past hunts of endangered whales
Facing accusations that it is still violating a wildlife treaty, Japan insists it no longer hunts endangered sei whales in international waters.
First Bryde's whale auction held since Japan's resumption of commercial whaling
A Bryde's whale auction was held on Thursday in Sendai — the first since Japan ended its 31-year commercial whaling hiatus a month ago — with cuts of the single animal on offer sold for up to ¥20,000 ($183) per kilogram. Bryde's whale meat is ...
Tracing the fluctuations in moral standards
"More than 16,500 women and men were sterilized against their will," reads a newsletter published in 1997 by the Network on Ethics and Intellectual Disability. Shocking. Less so now, as recent developments having made the fact familiar. Shocking all the same. How can civilization have ...
In Japan, the business of watching whales is far larger than the business of hunting them
People packed the decks of the whale-watching boat, screaming in joy as a pod of orcas put on a show: splashing tails at each other, rolling over and leaping out of the water. In Kushiro, just 160 km south of Rausu, where the four dozen ...
Japan's whale restaurants cheer resumption of commercial hunts
"Two sashimi, three steaks," cries the waitress at one of Tokyo's most famous whale restaurants during a frantic lunchtime service where Japan's resumption of commercial whaling has cooked up new hope. Mitsuo Tani has spent 46 of his 64 years preparing and cooking whale meat ...
