The Australian government has condemned Japan's "regrettable" decision to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial whaling. The Japanese government's withdrawal from the global body, announced on Wednesday, will see commercial hunts in the country's territorial and economic waters start in July 2019. Announcing the decision, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also said Japan would end its so-called "scientific" hunts in the Southern Ocean, operations that have for years caused tension between Tokyo and Canberra. The decision was made at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday after the government decided it would be difficult to resume commercial whaling while a member of the IWC."From July 2019, after the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere," Mr Suga said in a statement.