Japan says it plans to restart commercial hunts for whales in July of 2019. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, made the announcement on Wednesday. He also said that his country would withdraw from the International Whaling Commission. The international agency, based in Britain, was set up to provide for the protection of whales and the orderly development of the whaling industry. Suga said that Japan would restart commercial whaling in keeping with “Japan’s basic policy of promoting sustainable use” of sea life based on scientific evidence. He added that Japan is unhappy with the commission. The IWC is based on a treaty designed to represent both environmental concerns and whaling nations. But, he said, environmentalists have the most influence. The chief cabinet secretary also announced that Japanese crews would no longer go to the Antarctic and northern Pacific oceans to hunt whales as it did in the past.
