Japan has in fact made a mockery of the IWC for decades. It has hunted thousands of whales under the nonsensical fiction that they were needed for "scientific research" but in fact used the byproducts to supply old-style seafood restaurants. It carried out many of these hunts in the Southern Ocean right on Australia's doorstep.

Australia successfully challenged this program in the International Court of Justice in 2014 but Japan simply made some cosmetic changes and kept hunting. Japan then tried to change the voting rules of the IWC in conjunction with other whaling nations like Iceland and Norway, hoping they would be granted an exception. It was the failure of this attempt to rewrite the rules at an IWC meeting a few months ago that appears to have provoked Japan to quit the body. It can argue that the IWC has refused to allow even "sustainable" whale hunting as was originally intended and it has hinted it might set up a rival body in competition with the IWC.

Japan's latest announcement is an attempt to appease the bruised pride of its traditionalist conservatives while minimising the damage to its reputation abroad from flouting global environmental rules.

The good news is that Japan has at least promised to end its fake scientific whaling program and stop hunting in the Southern Ocean, shifting its efforts instead to its exclusive economic zone in the North Pacific. It is welcome that Japan has dropped the fiction of a "scientific" cull.

Yet Japan has failed to explain how many whales it plans to catch in its own waters. Japan argues that whale populations have recovered thanks to the moratorium and it is true that certain populations such as minke whales are no longer considered in immediate danger.