Anti-whaling activist arrested in Japan

Bethune, who had been held on board the Shonan Maru II since he sneaked aboard it in the Southern Ocean last month, was arrested when the ship docked in Tokyo.

"He was arrested for trespassing on a ship," a Japanese coastguard spokesman said of  New Zealander Bethune, 44.

"He was arrested on the whaling ship and will be transferred to the coastguard's security headquarters."

Citizen's arrest attempt

Scores of police and TV camera crews on the pier had awaited the arrival of the harpoon ship, while nationalist protesters flew Rising Sun flags and signs with abusive message about the "eco-terrorist".

Watched over by riot police, the protesters shouted through megaphones: "Step forward Pete Bethune! Apologise to the Japanese people! We will tear you apart!"

Bethune is a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and was the captain of the Ady Gil, a high-tech powerboat that was sliced in two in a collision with the Shonan Maru II in January.

He climbed aboard the Japanese ship before dawn on February 15 from a jet ski with the stated intent of making a citizen's arrest of captain Hiroyuki Komiya for what he said was the attempted murder of his six crew.

Instead he was kept aboard the ship until it returned to Japan, where he was handed over to authorities.

If convicted he faces up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 100,000 yen (US$1,100).

'Prisoner of War' claim

It is the latest chapter in a long-running battle between environmentalists and Japanese whalers, who hunt the ocean giants in the name of scientific research, a loophole to a moratorium on whaling.

Japan maintains that whaling has been part of the island-nation's culture for centuries, and it does not hide the fact that whale meat from its expeditions ends up in shops and restaurants.

Japan's Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu told a press conference that the nation would maintain a "resolute stance" but said he did not see a diplomatic row brewing.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has called Bethune the first New Zealander taken as a "prisoner of war" to Japan since World War II, said on its website it was preparing legal representation for the skipper.

The group declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese harpoon ships in Antarctic waters on February 27, saying it had been the most successful campaign so far, saving many whales.

If Bethune faces trial in Japan, it would be the second court case there centred on whaling, besides the ongoing proceedings against two Japanese Greenpeace activists now in the dock in the northern city of Aomori.

The so-called "Tokyo Two" face up to 10 years in prison for theft and trespassing after they took a box of salted whale meat, which they said was proof of embezzlement in Japan's state-funded annual whaling expeditions.