30+ years ago the US blackmailed Japan into signing on to the IWC by banning them from fishing in US territorial waters around Alaska (the Bering sea) until they agreed to join. Japan capitulated, their whaling operations were nothing compared to their fishing. Two years later the US banned all foreign fishing in its territorial waters anyway.
Japanese fleet prepares to resume commercial whaling
Japanese whaling ships prepared on Sunday to set to sea, with crews gathering on decks in a northern port a day ahead of Japan's first commercial whaling hunt in more than 30 years.