Japan will go ahead with its whaling programme in the Antarctic later this year under heightened security to fend off activists who have vowed to disrupt the annual hunt, the country’s fisheries minister said.

RADIATION fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan’s food chain as unsafe levels of cesium found in beef on supermarket shelves were also detected in more vegetables and the ocean.

Japan today cancelled the rest of its whale hunting season in Antarctic waters because of repeated harassment by Sea Shepherd activists at sea, after netting only a fifth of its targeted catch of 850 whales.