For decades Japan has been killing whales and selling their meat to eat. In 1986, that changed. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium was issued which made it illegal to hunt whales. Despite this Japan still hunts whales and sells their meat for economic value. It is time once and for all for this cruel treatment and murder of whales to come to an end.

“Some people eat beef, others eat whale. We should respect all cultures,” said Komei Wani in a New York Times interview.

Some may eat beef, but cows and pigs are not sacred and endangered animals like whales are. Although whaling is a part of their culture, cultures are constantly changing as the times change. We cannot afford to lose any more of these beautiful animals. Cows and pigs on the other hand are bred to be eaten, and aren’t very pretty either.

Despite all of this, whaling is still going on in Japan today. The only reason they got away with this is that the Japanese government says the whaling is purely for scientific research. Recent studies show though that the scientific research is very minimal compared to the economic gain. That is why, once again International Court of Justices met late last March in The Hague to discuss this ongoing problem. They came to the conclusion that the Japanese were abusing their license to legally kill whales. They put a stop to one program in particular off in the southern ocean that killed over 10,000 whales since 1988.

“The ruling makes it clear that whaling can be legal if it’s actually carried out for research purposes. Japan is being forced to restructure its whaling from the ground up to turn it into a real research program.” Masayuki Komatsu, a visiting researcher at the International Center for the Study of East Asian Development in Kitakyushu, said in an interview with New York Times.

Doubts still linger though if Japan can actually restructure its whaling program to turn it into a real research program because the government lacks instinctive. A little problem like this is not worth fighting to harshly about with Japan. Therefore it could be fairly easy for the Japanese to slip around this new restriction, just as they did with the one in 1986.

“We are revising the contents of the research to take into consideration the court’s decision to the greatest extent that we can. We want to gather scientific data in order to resume commercial whaling as soon as possible.” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japanese Minister of Agriculture in an interview with The New York Times.

This proves that the Japanese are thinking of whaling from an economic standpoint and not from a moral standpoint. Although the ruling does not put a complete end to this senseless killing, it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully in the future they will be able to put an end to whaling, not only in Japan, but also the world.