Japan, Australia vow to try to avoid conflict over whaling

Japan and Australia agreed Friday to make efforts to prevent a dispute over whaling from hurting bilateral relations, a government official said.During talks in Singapore, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono briefed his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop about his country's proposal to restructure the International Whaling Commission to make it easier to resume commercial whaling.But Australia has been strongly opposed to all forms of whaling, raising concern that ties between Tokyo and Sydney could be strained by the practice which Japan contends is a cultural tradition.Last month, Japan …READ FULL ARTICLE