Japan to push whaling issue.

Japan to push whaling issue.

Japan will put pressure on the UN to revise whale meat market regulations at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference, which begins this week in Chilean capital city Santiago. Trade in minke meat is currently banned under the CITES statutes, although a black market for the product does exist in Japan. Despite Japanese proposals for a relaxation of the ban, the majority voting system at the conference combined with a widespread disapproval of whaling around the world are expected to quash any chance of a revision. The International Whaling Commission refused four separate bids from Japanese fishing communities to set quotas for whale catching last month, continuing the long-standing ban. Japan’s new Environment Minister Shunichi Suzuki, appointed in October, is a renowned pro-whaling supporter and is widely expected to force the issue within the international community in the coming months. Another issue which will come under the spotlight at the CITES conference will be trade of illegally harvested rainforest hardwoods, a continually ignored aspect of the existing CITES legislation.

  CITES