Japan says it will continue whaling despite protests

Japan will continue its whale-hunting programme despite mounting international protest, a fisheries official said today.

The Fisheries Agency today received a note protesting Japan’s whaling activities, signed by 17 countries, according to agency spokesman Hideki Moronoki.

But this would not change Japan’s stance on the issue – that Japan is entitled to a yearly catch under international whaling regulations – Moronoki said.

Japan is expected to kill 935 minke whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary over the first four months of the year in what the country says is a scientific research hunt.