TOKYO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi said Friday that Japan is to resume as soon as possible its "investigative whaling" activities which were interrupted by environmentalists.

    Japan is happy to see the release of the detained environmentalists before the issue leads to escalation of tension between Japan and Australia, Wakabayashi told reporters at a press conference.

    The environmentalists' disturbing action was regrettable and Japan will reinforce its stand to the international community that its whaling activities are proper, the minister said.

    Two Australian anti-whaling activists were captured and detained on board the Yushin Maru No. 2, which was in its whaling mission in waters around the Antarctica, on Tuesday when handing a letter of protest to Japanese whalers.

    The two were released Friday morning.

    Japan's whaling activities have been the target of fierce condemnation from countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Japan has for long been claiming that its whaling program is for scientific purpose and the world whale populations could afford a limited catch.

Detained anti-whaling activists freed from Japanese boat

Sea Shepherd member Australian Benjamin Potts. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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    CANBERRA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The two detained anti-whaling activists, held captive after boarding a Japanese whaling boat on Tuesday, were released Friday morning from a Japanese whaling boat near Antarctica.

    "The two men were transferred in the early hours of this morning and are safe and well onboard the Oceanic Viking," a Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said.

Australian customs willing to pick up men held by Japanese whalers

Sea Shepherd member Briton Giles Lane. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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    CANBERRA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Thursday that a customs vessel was willing to transfer two men held on a Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean as early as possible.

    Smith told reporters in Perth, the capital of the Western Australian state, that his government agreed to let the Oceanic Viking customs vessel to assist in the transfer of the two Australians who were held on Tuesday while trying to deliver a written plea to the Japanese crew to stop killing whales in the Antarctic Ocean. 

Two anti-whaling activists board Japanese whaler

    BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Two anti-whaling activists who boarded a Japanese whaler in Antarctic waters on Tuesday have been detained, while an official denied claims that the men were assaulted and tied to a radar mast.

    An Australian and Briton from the environmental group Sea Shepherd — which has been tailing ships involved in Japan's annual whale hunt — forcibly boarded the Yushin Maru No. 2 and were being held in the ship's office, Japan's government-backed Institute for Cetacean Research said in a statement.