Tokyo - The main ship in the whaling fleet of Japan, the world's biggest whaling nation, set out for the Antarctic on Monday for its annual hunt, Greenpeace said, amid criticism from anti-whaling nations such as Australia and environmental organisations.
Below are some questions about Japan's whaling programme:
* Why does Japan continue whaling?
Japan argues that whaling is a cherished cultural tradition and objects to criticism of the practice of killing and eating whales as barbaric, saying it is no different from slaughtering other animals.
It also says whales are to blame for a decline in world fish stocks, though environmental groups dispute this.
A global moratorium, overseen by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), has banned commercial whaling since 1986 after many species were driven towards extinction.
But Japan has continued with what it calls a scientific whaling programme, mostly involving minke whales, which it says is not aimed at exploiting whales for their meat, although the flesh is mostly sold for consumption.
At the same time, Japan has been fighting for the moratorium to be lifted, saying some species, such as minke, are abundant enough for it to resume limited commercial hunting.
Norway and Iceland also hunt minke.
Japan has been whaling for hundreds of years and began Antarctic whale hunts in the 1930s.
It has killed about 7 000 Antarctic minkes over the past 20 years, and plans to catch around 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales in the upcoming hunt.
Some experts say Japan fears that limits on whaling will lead to limits on all Japanese fishing. Others argue that the whaling campaign is a form of nationalist diplomacy.
* Why do others object?
The United States, Australia, New Zealand and many Latin American nations as well as environmental groups strongly oppose whale hunting, calling it cruel and unnecessary.
They say it threatens whale populations that have not recovered from past commercial exploitation and continuing environmental pollution.
The whaling dispute sparked an exchange of complaints between Australia and Japan earlier this year, though the two governments have agreed not to let it damage bilateral ties.
Australia, for whom whale watching is an important part of its tourism industry, is opposed to whaling because of a strong environmental streak and a cultural affinity with beaches and ocean mammals.
It launched its own scientific whaling study in the Southern Ocean on Monday to prove it was not necessary to kill the ocean mammals to study them.
The Australian government has said it is keeping open the option of an international legal case against Tokyo's annual cull.
* How is whaling seen in Japan?
Eating whale meat is less common than in the past.
It was frequently served in school lunches after World War Two, a practice encouraged by US Occupation forces as a way of providing much-needed protein for a hungry population.
But the appetite for what is now a delicacy is fading, and while whale meat can still be found in some supermarkets and restaurants, it rarely appears on family dinner tables.
A Japanese media poll in February showed that a majority of Japanese endorse whaling and eating whale meat.
About 65 percent of the respondents to a poll by Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said they supported whaling and 56 percent were in favour of eating whale meat.
Research last year by an assemblyman in Taiji, a whaling town 450 km (280 miles) west of Tokyo, showed that local whale meat contained levels of mercury 10 to 16 times more than advised by Japan's health ministry. - Reuters