Japan to press for resumption of annual whale hunt

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Japan will step up efforts to resume its annual whale hunt in the Antarctic, the BBC reported.

"I want to aim for the resumption of commercial whaling by conducting whaling research," Mr Abe said.

In March, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the whaling programme was not for scientific research as Japan had claimed.

Australia, backed by New Zealand, brought the case against Japan in 2010.

Japan had stopped the hunt in the Antarctic after the ruling but vessels have carried on hunting Minke whales along Japan's northern coast. Japan says these are also for research purposes.

How Mr Abe intends to get around the international court ruling concerning the hunt in the Antarctic remains unclear, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo.

Referring to the respect given to whales by those in towns where whaling takes place, Mr Abe said it was "regrettable that this part of Japanese culture is not understood."