Japan’s Whale meat Obsession

By Justin McCurry – GlobalPost
Published: April 8, 2010 05:09 ET in Asia (used with permission)

TOKYO, Japan — In the coming days, a fleet of Japanese ships will return from the Antarctic Ocean laden with a controversial cargo of whale meat — the spoils of a four-month “lethal research” expedition condemned by conservationists and even Japan’s closest trading partners and allies.

Foreign media criticism and harassment from activists have frustrated the fleet in recent years, but it hasn’t stopped it from conducting what Japan believes is its inalienable right to maintain a 400-year-old tradition of killing and eating whales.

Japan’s persistence in the face of international opposition is a mystery to many. Diplomatically and financially it has nothing to gain by exploiting a loophole in the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows it to kill about 1,000 whales every winter.

It is clear that the fleet is not satisfying a popular appetite for whale meat back home. While some older Japanese look back fondly on a time, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, when the meat was served in school lunches, most younger people wonder why anyone would prefer the chewy, oily flesh over chicken, pork and beef.

According to a 2008 survey by the Nippon Research Center, 95 percent of Japanese either consume whale meat very rarely or never at all. Annual per capita consumption now amounts to no more than four slices of sashimi a year.

The result is a growing stockpile that has prompted the reintroduction of whale meat into the school lunch system in several parts of Japan.

While industry supporters talk of a national culture of whale consumption, the meat is eaten regularly only in a handful of coastal villages with strong historical links to the industry.

These communities, including Wada, on Japan’s Pacific coast, are permitted by the agriculture ministry to catch a certain number of smaller whales not covered by the IWC ban, despite fears over high levels of dioxin, mercury and other toxins.

The catch is of limited economic value to local people, but forms a pivotal part of a campaign to save traditions under attack from what some call Western culinary imperialism.

In fact, large-scale whaling in distant oceans began only after the U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who led the postwar occupation of Japan, identified whale meat as a cheap source of protein for an impoverished and hungry nation.

“Whale meat saved Japanese people from starvation during the food shortage after the war,” said Konomu Kubo of the Japan Whaling Association. “We believe whale meat was a source of vitality and enabled Japan to achieve high economic growth after the war and become a major economic power.”

Jun Morikawa, a professor at Rakuno Gakuen University in Sapporo, is one of few Japanese to have openly challenged the belief that whale consumption is an important part of the country’s cultural heritage.

Instead, he points to collusion between Fisheries Agency bureaucrats and politicians representing coastal communities with a vested interest in promoting a loss-making industry that also comes with enormous environmental and diplomatic costs.

“They are like a fishing industry tribe,” said Morikawa, author of “Whaling in Japan: Power Politics and Diplomacy.” “Japan’s whaling policy is determined, executed and assessed by a small governing elite. The whaling industry is not financially viable. Its job is to spread pro-whaling propaganda and manipulate public opinion so that people think that eating whale meat is part of our national culture.”

Activity: Discussion

  • What ethical issues at stake in the continued hunting of whales by some countries?
  • What vales are at play in the debate?
  • Representatives of Japan’s whaling industry argue that whaling should be continued because of its traditional place in Japan’s history. What is your reaction to this argument?
  • Evaluate the strength of the argument from both sides, those who want all whaling to stop and those who insist that they should be able to continue whaling. Which are the stronger arguments in your view, and why?
  • Are there bigger issues here than the preference of some people for whale meat? How important is this argument in light of the preservation of whale species?
  • Apply the Christian principle of stewardship of the environment to this issue. To what conclusion does it lead and why?