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This poll does not seem to square with the figure I have seen quoted before that only 10% of Japanese had ever eaten whale meat. They must have left the forms in the whale meat gourmet butchers, sorry restaurants? Something should appear on Japan Today about this, as they regularly report stories on Kyodo News.
Japan poll shows support for commercial whaling
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO (Reuters) - A majority of Japanese support the resumption of limited commercial whaling, according to a government opinion poll that is likely to spark criticism from conservationists.
The survey results are also likely to bolster efforts of the Japanese government in its push for the lifting of a 16-year ban on commercial whaling when it hosts the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in May.
Some 75.5 percent of the 3,453 respondents to the poll, which is the first of its kind, said they supported resuming commercial whaling in coastal waters if the hunting were strictly controlled according to scientific principles, Kyodo news agency reported.
Only 10 percent opposed the idea.
'We will decide how to go about negotiations at the IWC meeting based on the survey results,' a government official was quoted by Kyodo as saying.
Japan and fellow whaler Norway have long pushed for the resumption of commercial whaling, an always touchy issue likely to be even more contentious this year because Japan recently said it would expand its research whaling programme.
Tokyo, which abandoned commercial whaling to comply with a 1986 IWC moratorium, has roused international ire by carrying out what it calls scientific research whaling since 1987.
Many critics contend that the meat obtained through this actually ends up on restaurant tables.
GOURMET FOOD
Whale meat was an important source of protein in an impoverished Japan after World War Two, but it has become a gourmet food over the last few decades as prices rose in line with falling supply.
Some 88 percent of the survey respondents, however, said they had tasted whale at least once, Kyodo said.
Two weeks ago Japan angered conservationists by saying it planned to expand its research whaling programme this year to also catch sei whales, which are said to be endangered.
Under a proposal submitted to the IWC for approval, Japan's research fleet in the Northwest Pacific plans to catch 150 minke whales, a rise of 50 from last year. It also plans to catch 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales, and 10 sperm whales.
Japan maintains that the whales it catches are far from endangered, especially minke whales.
It has also argued that whales are consuming vast amounts of fish, leading to a worldwide drop in fisheries production, and that it is essential to catch them in order to study their impact on fishing.
A senior Japanese fisheries official recently told Reuters that the country expects to push hard for resumption of commercial whaling at the IWC meeting.
But the chances are slim, since a three-quarters majority of the 42 IWC members are required to back lifting the ban and a number of members, including the United States and Britain, are strongly opposed.
The IWC's scientific committee will meet in the southwestern city of Shimonoseki from April 25 to May 9, while its annual meeting will be from May 20 to May 24.
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