Between 1987 and 2003, the latest date for which official catch data is available, Japan alone has taken approximately 6,700 minke whales of two species (common and Antarctic), 144 Bryde’s whales, 40 sei whales and 18 sperm whales in its scientific whaling programmes. Quotas for the 2003-2004 season and the 2004-2005 season added approximately 1,400 additional whales to this figure. By contrast, only 840 whales were killed worldwide by Japan for scientific research between 1954 and the onset of the moratorium. The annual catches proposed in Japan’s new scientific whaling program in the Antarctic (JARPA II, see below) will alone represent more than half of the total worldwide takes for scientific research by all other nations in the past half century.