After 26 days in custody, Greenpeace Japan anti-whaling activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki have been released on bail and are back home with their families.
There was significant international outcry over the arrests, and around the world upwards of 250,000 people wrote letters to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign Minister calling for Junichi and Toru's release.
Here in New Zealand, Greenpeace activists delivered a crate containing 1,700 letters from New Zealanders to the Japanese Embassy in Wellington.
Only 10 per cent of bail applications are successful in Japan, so it is a relief that Junichi and Toru were part of this 10 per cent.
While the two have been released, justice will not be done until a proper investigation of the whale meat scandal happens. Why the Japanese prosecutor suddenly dropped his investigation citing a "lack of evidence" of all things, is curious.
Click here for more information on the whale meat scandal, or here for more information on how you can help save the whales.
To finish up, here's a pictorial petition calling for an end to commercial whaling.