Traditions, perceptions clash as Japan expands whaling activities

A Japanese woman leaves Kujiraya, a whale meat restaurant, in Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district

September 5, 2000
Web posted at: 12:16 PM EDT (1616 GMT)

In this story: Bryde's, sperm whales caught for research purposes U.S. troubled by the hunt Japan required to make use of whales caught for research RELATED STORIES, SITES

TOKYO (AP) -- By the outside world's standards, Kujiraya's menu is as politically incorrect as it gets.

In a boisterous atmosphere steeped in cigarette smoke and the smell of beer, diners start off with such hors d'oeuvres as whale jerky or whale bacon. After that, there's boiled whale stomach, whale on a stick, deep-fried whale chunks, whale sashimi, tongue of whale, whale fluke soup.

U.S. sanctions threats grab little notice here. Whaling ban or not, Kujiraya and others are doing a booming business, cashing in on a nostalgia among Japanese baby boomers who remember the taste from school lunches, or younger people just out to try something unusual.

"We get all kinds, from babies to old ladies," manager Kiyohiko Tanahashi said.

MESSAGE BOARD Animal world     ALSO Japan slams U.S. for sanctions threat over whales

But the sale of whale meat at restaurants and supermarkets has made Japan an environmental outlaw in the minds of those who question whether killing of hundreds of whales each year is in the interests of science -- as Tokyo has repeatedly claimed -- or merely an excuse to keep putting blubber on the table.

And with a Japanese whaling fleet now plying the northwest Pacific, the issue is threatening to boil over yet again.

For the first time in more than a decade, Japan's fleet has since late last month killed two sperm whales and five Bryde's whales, along with 22 of the much more abundant and smaller species they hunt each year, the minke.

The fleet is to return to Japan at the end of this month, and head out again next spring.

Joji Morishita, in charge of whaling for Japan's Fisheries Agency, said Japan added the sperm and Byrde's whales to its catch list to study their impact on fish populations in Japanese waters.

"Sperm and Bryde's whales together eat 20 times more than minkes," he said. "We need to study how they affect Japanese fishing."

Morishita said research indicates both kinds of whale are multiplying sufficiently for Japan to take 10 sperm and 50 Bryde's whales on its current hunt without endangering them.

Japan estimates there are 100,000 sperm whales and 22,000 Bryde's whales near its northeastern waters, and that they are eating so much that they are biting into the livelihoods of Japanese fishermen.

But the decision has not gone down well internationally.

Secretary of State Madeline Albright has told the Japanese the United States is deeply troubled by the decision to expand the hunt, and said Washington, which lists both species as endangered, would not hesitate to impose penalties.

On Thursday the United States announced it would boycott several meetings in Japan dealing with science and the environment in protest at the expansion of whaling. Britain and New Zealand have also voiced strong concern.

"If the purpose of the hunt is purely research, it should not start with hurting the whales, but with observing them," said Junko Sakurai of Greenpeace Japan. "If you do research on monkeys, deer or pandas, you don't begin by killing them."

Greenpeace and other critics argue that research is only a pretext, and that selling the meat is the true objective.

"We aren't against the culture of eating whale meat," she added. "But most of the whale meat in Japan comes from the southern hemisphere and the waters there are open sea. If the international community is against hunting, then it's wrong for Japan, as a member of the international community, to keep doing it."

Officials here make no apologies.

All Japanese whaling boats are captained by investigators from the government-linked Cetacean Research Institute, which analyzes data gathered from the hunts.

The institute is also in charge of marketing the meat and other byproducts, such as oils used in cosmetics and perfume, once the data are collected. The proceeds help fund the research.

The sales average about $27-36 million a year, according to Morishita. Most of the meat comes from minkes, 400 of which Japanese whalers killed last year.

An adult minke would bring the equivalent of about $100,000 on the market. Most expensive is its fluke, at about $40 a pound, while red meat fetches around $20 a pound. Kujiyara's whale dishes are expensive, but not outrageously so, at $20 for lunch and $40 or more for a full-course dinner.

IWC rules, officials say, require the meat and byproducts of whales killed for research to be processed commercially, because of a stipulation against merely wasting the whale.

The research "is not a 'loophole' or 'illegal' or 'commercial whaling in disguise' as the anti-whaling rhetoric suggests," said Masayuki Komatsu, a senior fisheries official.

Komatsu says the U.S. measures are tantamount to India threatening sanctions on the United States for eating beef: "A provocative and inappropriate attempt to impose values on others by force."

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Greenpeace International
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR)
International Whaling Commission

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