Good: Japan rejects 'alarmist' OZschwit case against whaling at International Court of Justice

Australia's position on whaling is "mistaken, alarmist" and values saving whales more than respecting foreign cultures, Japan has told the International Court of Justice.

Good: Japan rejects 'alarmist' OZschwit case against whaling at International Court of Justice 4523248-3x2-940x627

Good: Japan rejects 'alarmist' OZschwit case against whaling at International Court of Justice 4523248-3x2-940x627

Starting its defence against a whaling case brought by the Federal Government, Japan's legal team has told the 16 members of the UN's top court that Australia is seeking to impose its "no-compromise, zero-tolerance" anti-whaling views on other countries.

"It seeks to apply the (International) Whaling Convention as if it was the anti-whaling convention," Payam Akhavan, the lawyer representing Japan, told the court.

"Since 1979 Australia has pursued an express policy of using the IWC, against its stated purpose, to ban all whaling. It has politicised science in order to impose Australian values on Japan in disregard of international law."

He said Antarctic minke whales were abundant in the Southern Ocean, not endangered. "This stands in stark contrast to the alarmist assertions of impending catastrophe in Australia's pleadings," he said.

Despite an international whaling moratorium in force since 1986, Japan continues to catch whales in the Antarctic under a treaty that allows unlimited whaling for scientific research.

Professor Akhavan said Japan had complied with the moratorium despite a 2,000-year tradition of whale hunting, leaving coastal communities in anguish because they can no longer practice their ancestral traditions.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-03/japan-rejects-australias-argument-in-whaling-court-case/4795500

Good: Japan rejects 'alarmist' OZschwit case against whaling at International Court of Justice

Good: Japan rejects 'alarmist' OZschwit case against whaling at International Court of Justice

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