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A row over whaling threatened to overshadow a visit to Australia by Japan's foreign minister today, a day after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned of legal action to stop Japan's annual whale hunt.
Australia opposes the slaughter and Rudd on Friday said it would take Tokyo to the International Court of Justice over the issue before the start of the next whaling season in November, unless Japan stopped the controversial practice.
"Specifically, what we're putting to the Japanese is to take where they are now, which is the slaughter of some hundreds of whales each year, and reduce that to zero," Rudd said Friday.
"If we don't get that as a diplomatic agreement, let me tell you, we'll be going to the International Court of Justice."
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, whose visit is the first by an official of Japan's five-month-old government, said that whaling would be on the agenda during the talks.
Okada visited a Japanese school in Sydney after his arrival and was due to meet Rudd and Defence Minister John Faulkner later Saturday. He then travels to Perth to meet with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Sunday.
Australia and New Zealand have consistently opposed Japan's killing of hundreds of whales each year via a loophole in an international moratorium that allows "lethal research".
Japan says its research whaling is a legal practice carried out in public waters under the international convention.
Its whaling fleet has been involved in fierce clashes with animal rights campaigners in recent weeks, including one encounter that left the activists' high-speed powerboat sliced in two.
