Japan and Whaling Facts

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was introduced in 1946 after centuries of commercial whaling around the world sparked fears of widespread extinction.

Initially, the convention - enforced through the International Whaling Commission, of which there are 88 member nations - set limits on the number of whales permitted to be killed each year. In 1985 the commission introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling applicable from the beginning of the 1985-86 season.

Since then just a handful of countries have continued to hunt and kill whales for commercial purposes. They do so under objection to the moratorium.

In the 1980s the then USSR, Japan and Norway refused to honour the moratorium and continued with commercial whaling. Today commercial whaling is conducted by Norway, which has consistently objected to the moratorium since its introduction, and Iceland, which initially conducted a scientific program following the introduction of the moratorium but has since returned to commercial whaling. Both countries conduct whaling only in their own exclusive economic zone, not in international waters or the territory of other nations.

Between 1985 and 2012 more than 22,000 whales were killed by objecting countries as part of their commercial programs. Of those, over 10,000 were taken by Norway and more than 5,000 were taken by Japan, before it ceased commercial whaling in 1988.