Japan joined an international moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982, but continued with «scientific» whaling programs that it claimed were exempt from the agreement. (sciencemag.org)
From the outset of their large - scale commercial hunting operations in the late 1920s until the international ban on commercial whaling in 1986, Nippon Suisan, Kyokuyo and Maruha profited from the death... (eia-global.org)
The disclosure in California comes as the International Whaling Commission considers a compromise that would end the longstanding moratorium on commercial whaling in return for Japan and other whaling countries reducing * their independent whale hunts. (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com)