Why Do the Japenese hunt whales? Is whale meat popular there?

[leftyladyfrommo]

I just don't understand why anyone still hunts whales. We don't need whale oil any more. And I don't think whale meat is all that tasty. So what is the deal? Do the Japense like whale meat? Couldn't they subsitute some other kind of meat?

[ThomWV]

1. Other parts are used

All of it I suspect. I believe a lot of it is used in cosmetics.

[Richard Steele]

2. No, it's actually not very popular in Japan.

It's corruption- the whaling industry traded campaign contribution$
for laws SUBSIDIZING their failing industry.

Even after passing a regulation that schools have to offer whale meat
at lunch once a week, the Japanese government still has TONS of the stuff
piled up in freezers.


""The current market for whale meat in Japan is an artificial one,
supported by government subsidies and distribution of cut-price whale meat
to public institutions such as schools and hospitals.""

http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/marine_mammals_news/kyokuyo_stops_selling_whale.html

[Warpy]

3. Whales provide meat, medicine, cosmetics, ivory

The Japanese use every single part of the animal.

They'd better find some good substitutes if that mega ship is built and put to sea. The whales that are left will be gone fast.

[prole_for_peace]

4. they hunt them because they don't want to be told what to do.

i actually read a quote from an official in the Japanese government basically saying just that. how dare someone assault their independence and sovereign right to hunt whales. even if no one wants them (and the meat is not very popular there) they are still going to hunt them and everyone can be damned.

[bunkerbuster1]

7. I always got a "F*ck you" vibe about this.

It's the only explanation that makes sense.

[Lisa]

5. I'm of Japanese ancestry, and I wouldn't eat whale ...

Not just because of the conservation issues (and I teach biogeography and natural resource management) -- but also I've studied a bit of toxicology. Marine mammals, especially long-lived ones like whales, tend to accumulate a lot of nasty stuff in their tissues, particularly since the industrialization of the past century.

I suspect that tradition, cultural heritage, and also what kmlewis stated in this thread -- the desire to assert independence -- are contributing factors here. (And maybe some of the corporations that benefit from the whaling have some political influence?)

[Annces]

6. Why are humans destroying rain forests

No care for the future, only for money.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. But at least there's a short-term reason people burn rainforests

Hunting whales? It just seems like bull-headed stupidity. Can't the very few people who'd benefit from whaling be bought off, if that's what it takes?

[Annces]

10. I am fairly new to this subject

I follow the Sea Shepherd who is right now in pursuit of the Japanese Whalers. According to their articles, the Japanese who do the whaling think they can buy others off, like the Australians, in order to continue doing it. They still kill thousands of dolphins every year too.


www.seashepherd.org

[spinbaby]

9. My understanding is that the older generation loves whale

I have an elderly Japanese friend who says that after the war whale was valued as a high-fat food. She remembers eating whale in school lunches and has fond memories of it.

[freethought]

12. My father tried whale meat during his military service

He was serving in Korea during the war against North Korea in the early 1950s. He and some of his army buddies would get to take off to Tokyo every so often.
One trip he saw some Japanese fellow on a 3-wheel bicycle with this huge slab of meat hanging on it. When he asked "what the hell" that was, he was told it was whale meat. He had the opportunity to try it and found it similar in appearance and flavor to beef.

[morgan2]

11. isnt the whale semen or something like that

used in fancy over priced cosmetics?

[freethought]

13. It's political, it's cultural. There is no one reason.

As one poster said there is a definite "F__k You" component to the rest of the world to Japan's whaling ambitions. They are quite correct in this. Japan seems to think they are somehow being discriminated against because the wish to hunt whales.

Also, consider this, Japan is an island nation. The agricultural resources of the island are limited and have always been so throughout history. So, the Japanese had to rely on other food sources such as the oceans. Fishing, whaling, you name it. They don't see whales and dolphins as people like ourselves might. They are a resource for harvest or control not large, majestic, mysterious, and intelligent creatures that are worthy of protection.

I also don't doubt that there is an economic component to it as well. I am sure there could be a lucrative market for whale meat in Japan.

[Wcross]

14. I would at least want to try some whale once before I pass judgement.

http://luna.pos.to/whale/gen_cook.html

http://www.highnorth.no/library/Culture/Recipes/no-wh-me.htm

Some of the recipes look pretty tasty.


Japan has always lived off the bounty of the sea. Whales are a source of food that they enjoy, as do other cultures. There has to be a sustainable rate that whales could be harvested and still thrive as a species. It is like any other fishery, you set limits so the resource survives.

[CRF450]

15. Have you tried dolphin meat? (not the bottle nose dolphins!)

There my favorite!