(Transcript from World News Radio)
A Japanese official says opposition to Japan's whaling program is a kind of "eco-imperialism" where one value system is imposed on another with opposition based on emotion rather than scientific fact.
The comments come after Japan unveiled plans to resume whale hunting in the Southern Ocean in 2015 despite an international court ruling that previous hunts were illegal.
Peggy Giakoumelos reports.
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Japan has decided to go ahead with the hunt although it's slashed the quota for what it calls its scientific whaling program.
The new proposal calls for taking 333 minke whales instead of 900.
Japan's commissioner to the International Whaling Commission, Joji Morishita, says it's his country's latest attempt to pursue sustainable whaling in accordance with scientific principles.
Mr Morishita has been critical of international condemnation of Japan's whaling program, saying it smacks of a type of imperialism.
"The whaling issue is seen as a symbol of a larger issue sometimes in Japan... not just in Japan. You might have heard the word 'eco-imperialism. Anti-whaling positions are often seen as unreasonable imposition of one value code on the other."
Mr Morishita says there are double standards involved in the criticism of Japan.
He says depending on the country or culture, some animals are more highly valued than others, citing whales and elephants as examples.
"Where elephants are abundant, they want to utilise them. However, not because of the actual science or conservation and management of elephants, now elephants are seen as a charismatic animal, so just killing elephant is wrong in many parts of the world. Charismatic animals cover not just elephants, but whales, and in some part now the tuna is becoming a charismatic animal."
In March, the United Nations International Court of Justice ruled that Japan was abusing a scientific exemption set out in the 1986 moratorium on whaling, and was carrying out a commercial hunt under the guise of research.
Japan cancelled its 2014-15 Antarctic mission after the ruling, but has submitted this new proposal to the IWC for consideration.
Professor Donald Rothwell is from the Australian National College of Law.
He explains why Japan has made this announcement now.
"Japan indicated fairly soon after the ICJ judgement in April of this year, that they were carefully studying the court's judgement and were looking at their court's judgement and were looking at their options for undertaking a new form of whaling program, albeit it consistent with the ICJ ruling. Japan has no doubt looked at those issues over the last six or seven months and it's now released the proposal for the new whaling program, which would commence in the 2015-2016 whaling season and they need to have released it now for deliberation by the scientific committee of the IWC which will need time to assess this proposal and provide recommendations on it by 2015."
Consumption of whale meat in Japan reached its peak just after the Second World War when food shortages were rife prompting a higher consumption of the meat.
Sam Vincent is the author of Dispatches from the Whale Wars, a book which looks at both sides of the whaling debate.
He says despite a steady decrease in the consumption of whale meat, a certain nostalgia still remains in Japan.
"When America was occupying Japan, General MacArthur actually encouraged Japan to resume and drastically increase the Japan whaling program that it had started in the 1930s. From the late 1940s around half of all the protein that the Japanese were eating was whale meat and that has been deÿÿÿclining since the 1970s. The market decided that it wanted to eat other things. Most notably Australian beef, chicken, pork. But there's always been a certain nostalgia among people who grew up in that post-war period for eating whale meat. So now days the main demographic who eats whale meat are the elderly people and as they start to die off and a new generation with more cosmopolitan tastes replaces them, the market for whale meat has been steadily declining."
Other countries including Norway and Iceland also hunt whales, but have withdrawn their membership from the IWC meaning their hunts are not scrutinised at the same level as Japan's.
