Whaling: No news is good news.

Today the Australian government decided to take the Japanese government to the ICJ over the issue of research whaling.

As the Australian reported, both Smith and Okada as Foreign Ministers emphasized the importance of not letting the issue affect the bilateral relationship. While this decision is no doubt a little foolish strategically - as Lowy's Cook noted today- this folly is offset but the genuine lack of interest in the issue by Japan as I have suggested earlier.

Evidence for this is the fact that 'Australia takes Japan to ICJ over Whaling' did not break on the main page of the Yomiuri Shimbun's online top stories for any length of time (3 hours perhaps), and was pushed out by the 3pm update by events in Franch, Iran and the NPT. There was a short piece by Singapore based journalist Okazaki (lifted from reuters sources I imagine) noting only the facts. Fishing around Yahoo news garnered few extra reports, three.

No doubt an opinion will be forthcoming, but I suspect that the focus will be events in court surrounding the Acid Milk Attack by Peter Bethune. I have not seen any television reporting of it yet.

Perhaps this event will prove a game-changer in the bilateral relationship between Japan and Australia. But it still seems unlikely to me.