Japan PM regrets but vows to abide by UN whaling ruling

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday expressed regrets over the recent International Court of Justice''''s decision ruling Japanese research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean is illegal, but said Tokyo will abide by the judgment. "I am deeply regretful and disappointed, but Japan will abide by the ruling," Abe said in his meeting with Koji Tsuruoka, the government agent in the case presented to the UN court, Tsuruoka told reporters. On Monday, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, concluded that Japan''''s Antarctic whale hunting is not for scientific purposes allowed by the international convention, and ordered the whaling to stop. The case was filed with the court in 2010 by Australia, which claims Japan''''s whaling program is conducted for commercial purposes rather than scientific research. Tokyo stopped commercial whaling in line with a 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium, but has hunted whales annually in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica since 1987 for what it calls scientific research purposes, claiming the program is consistent with Article 8 of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling that permits research whaling.