An Alternative Explanation of Contemporary Japanese Whaling Diplomacy.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is one of the exceptional negotiation arenas where Japan is the center of everyone?s attention. The participants, especially the dominating anti-whaling preservationists, are incessantly told by the Japanese negotiators to obey the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) exactly as it stipulates, to set the preservationists? ideology aside and let science prevail in the negotiations, to mutually respect the culture of participating nations, and to acknowledge the sovereign rights of the whaling nations to utilize cetacean resources sustainably. In parallel, the participants are also told by numerous studies why Japan is doing so. Those studies all presuppose that Japan is seriously trying to resume commercial whaling.However, because Japan?s assertions to lift the moratorium make no difference in the IWC stalemate, those assertions cannot be taken at face value. Rather, it is logically possible for Japan to obscure its real diplomatic objective by claiming the opposite in the IWC negotiations. Along this line of thinking, our argument challenges the common understanding of Japanese whaling diplomacy: since the negotiation phase to re-open the moratorium began, the primary objective of Japanese whaling diplomacy led by the dominating Fisheries Agency (FA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry is the continuation of the so-called ?scientific whaling? under Article 8 of the ICRW and not the resumption of commercial whaling. We further argue that the Fisheries Agency (FA) even do not want to re-open the moratorium and is only pretending that it is devoted to lift the moratorium because the status-quo surrounding the whaling issue is favorable to continue whaling under Article 8 of the ICRW.Regarding the course of this paper, we begin with reviewing and briefly evaluating the aforementioned studies attempting to explain the Japanese whaling diplomacy. Secondly, a brief overview of the conceptual models is provided to understand the Japanese domestic political structure and process. Then, we thirdly turn to test our argument by counterfactual analysis. Fourthly, the domestic origin of Japanese whaling diplomacy including the policymakers? interests and incentives, and the enabling factors for pursuit of such interests are analyzed and put forward using the framework of a combination of conceptual models of Japanese domestic politics. This paper concludes with policy implications to the whaling controversy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]