The Japanese government has cancelled the Antarctic Whale Hunt that was supposed to get underway later this year.  It’s because of the ruling from the International Court of Justice ordering Japan to scrap its “research” whaling program because it was just a cover for the commercial harvest of whales.

“We have decided to cancel research whaling (in the Antarctic) for the fiscal year starting in April because of the recent ruling,” a fisheries agency official in Tokyo told reporters.

But he added that Japan plans “to go ahead with research whaling in other areas as scheduled,” including the northern Pacific.   The ICJ ruling did not cover coastal whaling as well, leaving Japan free to pursue that.  But even then, public consumption of whale meat has fallen steadily in Japan, and the “research whaling” was seen by critics as a government subsidy for a dying industry favored by nationalists.