Delegates at a whaling conference in Japan are expected to begin discussing how to reform the International Whaling Commission on Wednesday, even though more than half the organization's members were boycotting the meeting.
Japan opened the conference Tuesday by issuing a stinging rebuke of the dozens of anti-whaling nations that stayed away, saying their absence would prevent much-needed improvements to the commission.
Critics contend Japan plans to use the conference to push for a resumption of commercial whaling, and the boycotters -- only 34 of 72 IWC member nations are represented at the meeting -- included anti-whaling countries Britain, Australia and the United States.
Minoru Morimoto, Japan's IWC representative, said at the opening of the conference that the boycott made it "almost impossible" to have a worthwhile discussion on reforming the IWC, which Japan argues should manage commercial whaling rather than ban it outright.
"The possibility of achieving normalization of the IWC is also being lost," Morimoto said.
A global moratorium on commercial whaling has existed since 1986, but Japan kills hundreds of whales each year under a scientific whaling program conducted within the commission's rules. The meat from the program is sold as food.
Tokyo maintains that whaling is a national tradition and a vital part of its food culture, and argues that whale stocks have sufficiently recovered since 1986 to allow a resumption of limited hunts of certain species.
Many environmental groups claim Japan's research program is merely an excuse to keep hunting whales. Japan argues the program is needed to gauge whale populations and to study their breeding and feeding habits.
Opponents also accused Japan of buying support from other nations in the IWC with aid.
Attendees will start working on a report on IWC reform during Wednesday's session, Fisheries Agency official Joji Morishita told reporters Tuesday evening. The report will eventually be submitted to the IWC for its consideration, he said.
"For many years the IWC has been at an impasse," said Turid Rodrigues Eusebio, the representative from Norway, a leading pro-whaling country.
Anti-hunt protesters have clashed, sometimes violently, in recent days with Japanese whaling ships in the South Pacific.
On Friday conservationists threw stink bombs onto the deck of a whale processing ship after a confrontation at high seas, prompting the Japanese government to brand them "terrorists." Another protest ship collided with a Japanese whale-spotting ship on Monday. Both claimed they were rammed by the other. There were no injuries.
The Japanese ships are authorized to slaughter up to 945 whales in Antarctic waters under the scientific whaling program.
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