Japan has no intention of stopping what it calls whaling for research purposes, the Japanese vice farm minister said Monday.
Commenting on a call from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to stop research whaling, Yuki Takagi, vice minister of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, said such a halt would "deny the use of rights allowed under an international treaty."
Japan will seek understanding of its position from other countries through dialogue.
Albright made the request Sunday at her Tokyo meeting with Foreign Minister Yohei Kono.
Five Japanese whaling vessels owned by the government's Fisheries Agency left Japan earlier in July for the northwestern Pacific to conduct "whaling for research purposes."
Japan gave up commercial whaling in compliance with an international moratorium in 1986 but has engaged in research whaling since 1987. Antiwhaling countries say Japan is using the International Whaling Commission research whaling program as a loophole for commercial whaling.
In the past, the meat from these hunts has wound up on the tables of some of Japan's most exclusive restaurants, although some reports have found domestically marketed meat to be high in dioxin.