Author: Christopher Pokarier, Waseda University

Whales do not usually surface by the exclusive north shore of Sydney harbour. Yet when Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada sat down for a meeting with Kevin Rudd at the Australian Prime Minister’s official Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, on Saturday afternoon, the topic was very much on the menu of their conversation. Prime Minister Rudd declared just the previous day that, as pledged while in Opposition, if a diplomatic agreement to end Japan’s Antarctic whaling program by November was not achieved then ‘…let me tell you, we’ll be going to the International Court of Justice.’

That the whaling issue could assume such public prominence might bemuse pioneers of the bilateral relationship who overcame the legacy of war and cultural distance to forge a prosperous and profoundly important partnership between the two nations. Read more…