Japan is planning to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling next year, according to a report from Kyodo News.

The IWC, which banned whaling in 1986, rejected Japan's latest attempt to seek permission to restart its commercial whaling program earlier this year.  Tokyo will inform the body of its decision to go it alone before the end of the month.

Quoting unnamed government officials, Kyodo reported that Japan's whaling fleet would stay close to coastal waters within the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).  The annual trips to the Southern Ocean, misrepresented as "research", will be dropped because of the expense.

Australia remains opposed to "all forms of commercial and so-called 'scientific whaling'," said Australia's Environment Minister Melissa Price.  "While we would strongly prefer Japan to remain a party to the convention and a member of the commission, the decision to withdraw is a matter for Japan," she added.

The report set off alarms among environmental campaigners.

"Leaving the IWC would set a very dangerous precedent for other international treaties and conventions.  Not satisfied with harpooning whales, it now looks like Japan is threatening to harpoon the future of the IWC," said Darren Kindleysides, chief executive of the Australian Marine Conservation Society.  "The IWC has become the driving force for global whale conservation efforts in the 21st century.  If Japan is serious about the future of the world's whales, they would not leave the IWC."

"We would like to wholeheartedly celebrate an end to Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean, but if Japan leaves the International Whaling Commission and continues killing whales in the north Pacific it will be operating completely outside the bounds of international law," said Nicola Beynon, head of campaigns at Humane Society International in Australia.  "This is the path of a pirate whaling nation, with a troubling disregard for international rule."