Japan plans to resume commercial whaling in its territorial waters. It’s an act of defiance but also has hints of desperation.
Six-year-old Reto Aisaka was jumping up and down on the windswept dock. For five months, he’d been counting the days until his dad, Toru, returned from a whale hunt. The boy was up at dawn to meet him.
The news, though, came with an important caveat: Japan would no longer hunt whales in international waters, including in the Antarctic. Its fleet would be confined to the island nation’s own waters, up to 200 miles offshore, where whales are less plentiful. There are also serious questions about the ethics and optics of continued whaling in an age of increased activism over ocean ecosystems because of climate change, pollution and other worries.
A plate of roasted whale at Kujirakan. In the city, Junko Kojima runs the small Kujirakan, or Whale House, restaurant, the only eatery here still specializing in whale meat: fried, boiled, even whale sashimi. Junko Kojima at her Kujirakan, or Whale House, a restaurant that specializes in whale meat, in Shimonoseki. Japan vs. the world Japan’s decision to leave the International Whaling Commission came after years of frustration Japan argues the group failed to honor its dual mandate to find a balance between preserving whale stocks and allowing the “orderly development” of the industry.
Bridgewater says he is not surprised Japan withdrew from the IWC, describing the world body as a “dialogue of the deaf.” Japan subsidized whaling “research” to the tune of nearly $10 million a year, IFAW says. Now, Shigeki Takaya, the director of the Whaling Affairs Office at Japan’s Fisheries Agency, said subsidies will still be paid for at least three years to “smooth the transition” to commercial whaling and give the industry “a leg up.” But whether the government will have an appetite for continuing subsidies is unclear.
Traditional whaling died out in Nagato at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to overfishing and the advent of modern “Norwegian-style” methods, with powerful harpoon guns aboard large, fast ships, and the United States, Europe and Russia gutting whale populations in the North Pacific. Crew members attend a welcoming ceremony for the Nisshin Maru. Japan’s defense of its whaling industry is also rooted in the right-wing nationalism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s political base, a last gesture of defiance at a world that has forced them, as they see it, to constantly apologize for their past.
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