Japan's Withdrawal from International Whaling Regulation

Nikolas Sellheim is an independent consultant on international conservation law with a specialisation on the IWC and CITES. He is also co-Editor-in-Chief of Polar Record in the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK. He has published extensively on different conservation regimes and has conducted two post-docs at Kobe University, Japan, and University of Helsinki, Finland.Joji Morishita is a retired Professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan. Since 2013, he had served as Japan’s Commissioner to the IWC and from 2016 to 2018, he served as the Chair of the IWC.

• 1. Introduction Nikolas SellheimJoji Morishita2. A memoir – Japan’s Road to Withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Joji MorishitaPart I — Institutional implications3. Exit Japan, exit IWC?Steinar AndresenDavid Aarvik Nese4. As one door closes, does another open? Assessing the future of the protectionist agenda at the International Whaling Commission post-Japan’s withdrawalCameron JefferiesHeather Stock5. ’Opening up a procedure’: Might the re-adherence of Iceland to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 2002 provide an example for Japan to follow?Ed Couzens6. Spill-over? CITES after Japan’s withdrawal from the Whaling Convention — a focus on Namibia and the SADC countriesNikolas SellheimPart II — Cultural considerationsIndigenous Whaling post-Japanese IWC WithdrawalMalgosia FitzmauriceAgnes Rydberg8. Lessons from the 1982 Canadian IWC Withdrawal and Restoration of Inuit Bowhead Hunting for Japan’s 2019 IWC Withdrawal and Restoration of Coastal WhalingBarry Scott Zellen9. Whales as ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ in IWC member state culturesNikolas SellheimPart III — Perspectives10. The Commercial Impacts of Japan’s Withdrawal from the ICRW — A CommentaryGavin Carter11. Whales on the Rise, the IWC Demise, and Global Environmental Diplomacy: An Epilogue to the Whaling Wars — A CommentaryJosé Truda Palazzo, Jr.