Japan to revise northern Pacific sei whaling program

All that research Japan has done sure is helping science. Don't believe me, just look at how often that research isn't used by non-Japanese scientists.

But, but, but the research is all in Japanese. How can foreigners use it? (1) Important scientific information is translated. (2) Some foreigners can read Japanese.

Still, Japan annually consumes about 5,000 tons of whale meat from its research hunts, officials said.

Tee hee.

selling meat from killed sei whales violates a convention protecting endangered species, in a possible setback for Japan's ambition to resume commercial whaling.

Japan trading meats and products from endangered species? Wow! What a revelation, NOT! I can still go to a name stamp store and buy a stamp made from elephant ivory. I’m pretty sure I could find a few tiger and otter skins if I looked hard enough too.

Japan has hunted whales for centuries, 

So ‘did’ many other countries, but they grew up and stopped. Japan has a long list of species that have been hunted to extinction. Let’s hope certain species of whale don’t get added to that list.

Japan had to scale down its Antarctic whaling after a 2014 International Court of Justice ruling that its research whaling wasn't scientific enough.

wasn't scientific enough?? Its not scientific at all

"Japan to Consider Stopping Putting Endangered Animals in Freezers".

A step forward of sorts I suppose.

The big news for me is that they plan to continue research whaling.

Didn't they declared at the IWC summit that they proved their point ? What would be their reason to continue these "research" then ?

Japan's "research" into endangered sei whales is a bit like a Chinese company conducting "research" into endangered rhinos by killing them and then selling the horns. Neither behaviour is acceptable.

You can find the results of Japan's whaling "research" on the ICR home page. Strangely, one of the papers cited, Molecular Ecology 26: 740-75, (2017), has no ICR involvement at all.

I write more papers each year than the entire ICR and it doesn't cost taxpayers billions of Yen. I expect it costs more to paint "Research" on the side of a commercial whaling vessel than I get in government research funding each year.

So they also hunt endangered whales? So much for the excuse that they only hunt non-threatened species.

Following large-scale commercial whaling during the late 19th and 20th centuries, when over 255,000 whales were killed, the Sei whale is now internationally protected, although limited hunting occurs under a controversial research program conducted by Japan.  As of 2008, its worldwide population was about 80,000, less than a third of its pre-whaling population.

Disgusting!