The Japanese Parliament will today consider a bill which expresses the Government's desire to resume commercial whaling.
Japan considers whaling to be a cultural right and conducts annual hunts in the Southern and Pacific oceans — under a loophole in International Whaling Commission rules which allows for scientific whaling.
Changing domestic law in Japan would not have any impact on the International Whaling Commission, which prohibits commercial whaling.
The bill seeks to enshrine funding for research whaling into the national budget as well as adding additional resources for defending Japanese whalers from protest groups like Sea Shepherd.