In Japan, a grandiose eco-scandal has ripened due to the sale of whale meat

A Japanese whaling company has drawn an outcry from animal rights activists after it began selling whale meat from vending machines to increase its consumption.

Donning a whale-shaped hat, Kyodo Senpaku President Hideki Tokoro welcomed potential customers to the firm’s new “drone store” in the upmarket Motomachi shopping district, home to fashion boutiques and artisan bakeries. The “shop” itself is a room with three vending machines where you can buy whale sashimi, whale steak and whale bacon.

The firm recently opened two similar stores in Tokyo and is also planning to open a fourth in the western city of Osaka next month. The company hopes to grow to 100 outlets over the next five years.

“There are a lot of big supermarkets that are afraid of being harassed by anti-whaling groups, they won’t use whales. Therefore, there are many people who want to eat whales but cannot. We are opening stores with the thought that we can provide a place for these people to eat,” Tokoro told Reuters at the presentation of the vending machines for the meat of marine mammals.

The products sold mostly contain whales caught in Japan, a spokesperson for the company said. The price will be from 1000 to 3000 yen (approximately 530-1590 rubles).

But still, we need to figure out how relevant the consumption of whale meat by the Japanese is. Although the government maintains that eating whales is a cherished part of Japanese culture, consumption, which peaked in the early 1960s, has steadily declined as other sources of protein have become available.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japanese consumers ate 233,000 tons of whale meat in 1962, far more than beef (157,000) and chicken (155,000). However, only 1,000 tons of whale meat were eaten in Japan in 2021.

Conservationists say the move to promote whale meat is a desperate attempt to revive interest in a struggling business.

“Most Japanese have never tried it. How can it be something you call a national culture if no one is really involved in it?” said Catherine Matthes, head of policy for Japan’s global whale and dolphin conservation charity (WDC).

The International Whaling Commission (IWC), the global body that oversees whale conservation, banned commercial whaling in 1986 after some species were threatened with extinction. In fact, a moratorium was introduced on commercial fishing for all species of cetaceans.

Japan almost immediately protested, but withdrew it in 1987, announcing that it would stop commercial fishing and limit itself only to whaling under the JARPA (Japanese Research Program in Antarctica) Antarctic scientific program.

But the Japanese continued to be convicted that, under a scientific sauce, the country continued to engage in commercial fishing, catching not only minke whales (for which permission was given), but also other whales. The struggle did not stop, in 2014 the international court nevertheless came to the conclusion that the hunt was clearly not carried out for scientific purposes, as Japan insisted. Then Tokyo was ordered to stop the annual slaughter of about 900 whales in the Southern Ocean.

5 years pass. Japan withdraws from the IWC and slyly announces that it will stop hunting but resume commercial whaling in its coastal waters. This year, the government has set a quota of 379 whales from three species, although local whalers say their industry is struggling to survive. They blame aging fishing communities and boats, changes in cetacean behavior possibly related to climate change, and weak consumption.

Yes, it is low consumption. According to a 2012 survey by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, 89% of Japanese said they had not bought whale meat in the previous 12 months.

However, as The Guardian notes, the vending machines are part of an industry campaign backed by conservative politicians who accuse Western anti-whaling groups of culinary imperialism. Allegedly, in this way, the companies are trying to protect the tradition of eating whales, dating back to the Edo period (1603-1868). It is noted that every year Kyodo Senpaku provides schools with about 100 tons of whale meat for baby food.

Konomu Kubo, a spokesman for the company, comments on the vending machine idea: “We are aware of the criticism from anti-whaling groups, including in Japan, but they are in the minority. What matters to us is how popular vending machines are still.”

In general, they are really popular. For example, Tokyo resident Miki Yamanaka shared with reporters that the meat she bought from vending machines is a hit with her family members: “My father ate fried whale meat with a nostalgic expression on his face, and my eldest son loves whale steak cooked with soy sauce.” .

Some, having bought once, come back again. But all this is happening against the backdrop of loud warnings from activists about the dangers of such a business. One such activist, Astrid Fuchs, states: “Only a small but influential group of politicians and actors in this field is driving the country’s interests in whaling. This latest cynical marketing ploy comes at a time when the fisheries agency in Japan is looking to increase national whale quotas in about two years and possibly increase the list of species that could be killed.”

Whale and Dolphin Conservation also spoke of the manipulation of people’s minds around this topic: “A terrible marketing ploy is aimed at increasing the consumption of products related to whales, as another step in an attempt to protect the industry and reverse the decline in consumption of whale meat in Japan.” The organization also recalled that in 2020 the Japanese government allocated 5 billion yen in subsidies to support whaling.