Is Japan's whaling near end of the line?

JAPAN OFFICIALLY EXITED the International Whaling Commission on Monday and the first commercial whaling fleet, headed by the Nisshin Maru, set sail from port. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Some media outlets have reported on the change as if Japan had stopped killing whales and resumed the practice on Monday. That's not the case. Even when it was a member of the IWC, Japan never ceased its whaling practices.

The IWC passed the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling in 1986, which forbids whaling for commercial purposes. However, over the past 30 years, Japan has killed over 17,000 minke and other whales for "scientific research", although its researchers have only submitted two essays considered useful since 2005.