Japan studying new proposal to continue whaling: farm minister+

TOKYO, Feb. 2 Kyodo -
Japan is studying a new proposal to seek an international endorsement for its
continuation of whaling operations, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said Tuesday.

The proposal will be presented to the International Whaling Commission's annual
meeting in June in Morocco, Akamatsu told reporters.
Last year, Japan made a proposal that would allow it to hunt whales in its
coastal waters in return for scaling down so-called ''research whaling'' in the
Antarctic Ocean.
But the proposal failed to win support from Australia and other anti-whaling
members of the IWC due to differences over how sharply the research whaling
should be scaled down.
The new proposal therefore may include a steeper cut in the number of whales it
will catch, analysts said.
Japan has been hunting whales for what it calls scientific purposes since
halting commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international moratorium.
==Kyodo
2010-02-02 22:57:35


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