Posts in tag

whaling


    As 2019 comes to a close, we at JAPAN Forward are reflecting on the stories that moved Japan this year, and the stories our readers liked best.   For five days starting December 25, we will be sharing a few of the stories in the categories that dominated our coverage of the …

Japanese fishermen have set sail to hunt whales commercially for the first time in more than three decades, following Tokyo’s controversial decision to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission. Five vessels, their harpoons concealed beneath tarpaulin, left Kushiro in northern Japan on Monday morning. At around the same time, three whaling boats left Shimonoseki in …

Image copyright Barcroft Media Japan is about to resume catching whales for profit, in defiance of international criticism. Its last commercial hunt was in 1986, but Japan has never really stopped whaling – it has been conducting instead what it says are research missions which catch hundreds of whales annually. But Japan has now withdrawn …