Once again, Japan is threatening to pull out of the International Whaling Commission if no progress is made towards easing an international ban on commercial whaling. Japan has frequently threatened to pull out of the IWC in the past.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masahiko Yamada recently commented that they felt this is the final stage and are not sure how things are going to turn out over the IWC proposal which could see limited commercial hunts for 10 years. A British newspaper, the Sunday Times has claimed it has evidence suggesting that Japan has bribed small nations to support its attempts to lift the 24-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling and officials from St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Guinea and Ivory Coast were willing to discuss selling their votes at the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The paper said Japan denies the claims and the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement that the Japanese government does not cover any cost of any other IWC member countries related to the IWC. However, undercover reporters posing as representatives of a Swiss billionaire conservationist approached officials from pro-whaling countries and offered them an aid package to switch their vote. During their negotiations, the officials revealed their Japanese support - a fisheries official for Guinea said Tokyo usually gave his minister a minimum of 1,000 dollars a day spending money during IWC and other fisheries meetings.

New dramatic footage has just been released of a whale being hit by an exploding harpoon, off Norway in May. WSPA captured the footage, which shows a minke whale being hit by an explosion and the whaling ship attempting for more than 20 minutes to locate the whale, which was injured but still alive.