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Japanese see no reason to give up whale meat
Natsumi Mizumoto
At a corner of a Tokyo wholesale market jam-packed with huge tuna fish and other marine products are some distinctive displays where chunks of lean meat are on sale.
The displays belong to one of 13 brokers dealing mainly in whale meat and processed products on the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market's fishery division in the Tsukiji waterfront district.
While the market is the major food supplier to Tokyo's 12 million inhabitants, the quantity of whale meat has long been far short of that of tuna, for example, as Japan halted commercial whaling in 1988 in line with an international moratorium.
A similar decline has been seen in the number of restaurants specializing in whale meat, with only one said to be remaining in central Tokyo. In the 1960s, the height of Japanese whaling, such restaurants were common, particularly in downtown Tokyo, Tokyo people say.
Ganso Kujiraya, located at the center of the Shibuya district, was opened in 1955, well before the area became one of the most popular entertainment and shopping districts in Tokyo, particularly among young people.
It and other whale meat restaurants receive their supplies from catches under Japan's so-called research whaling programs and coastal hunting of small cetaceans such as Baird's beaked whale, pilot whales and dolphins, as well as from stocks of frozen and processed meat remaining from imports up to 1991.
Japan catches 500-600 whales a year, mostly relatively small minke whales, under the research whaling programs, which it says are permitted by the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
It also allows five local ports that used to be centers of Japanese whaling to engage in coastal whaling with catches of some 180 of the small whales, from Abashiri on the northeastern coast of the northernmost Hokkaido island to Taiji on the southern point of Wakayama Prefecture in the west.
Anti-whaling countries such as Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand and environmental groups say the research whaling is a disguise for commercial whaling.
These countries, where whales were never traditionally eaten, stopped whaling when crude oil became a substitute for whale oil.
The debate between pro- and anti-whaling members of the IWC has been at an impasse, with the 37-member IWC unable to stop Japan's whaling program and Japan failing in its bid to lift the moratorium, in place since late 1985.
No breakthrough either way is likely at the upcoming annual IWC meeting in Shimonoseki, western Japan, which starts Thursday with panel sessions and ends a month later after a weeklong ballot-casting general meeting.
As the standstill continues, the custom of eating whale meat, remembered only by the older generation, is gradually being forgotten.
However, Japan has no plan to abandon its whaling practices, not only because of demand from older generations but also due to the general tolerance of younger people toward what Japan calls its tradition of consuming whales.
Yumiko Ohara, 31, said that eating whale meat is 'acceptable,' although she had no chance to do so until her friend recently took her to Ganso Kujiraya. She was also surprised to see so many diners at Kujiraya.
'I would have it more if it were served in cheap bars we often go to,' Ohara said. Due to the meat's limited supply, dishes in Kujiraya are relatively expensive.
For 53-year-old Yasuharu Araki and Kojiro Kikuchi, the tradition is more important.
'We should tell the world more aggressively that eating whales is part of our culture,' Kikuchi said.
'I would miss it if chances to eat whales are lost at all,' said Araki.
Araki, a film producer, said he still cannot forget the taste of fatty whale tail called 'onomi,' which he last had more than 25 years ago, saying its taste compares favorably with other of his favorite meats including wild pheasant and deer.
'If Westerners take a piece of onomi steak without knowing it was a whale, they would love it, I'm sure,' he said.
Kikuchi sometimes serves whale sashimi and sushi at his sushi bar Sushi No Taiko in the Akasaka district, but has never met customers hesitant to eat it. Those of his age eat whale meat with a sense of nostalgia while younger customers eat it with curiosity, he said.
Kikuchi recalled that when he was a child, his mother used to buy whale meat and whale bacon at a community fishmonger.
Ohara said she remembers having eaten fried whale meat in school lunches, but that it might have vanished from the menu in the late 1970s, before she was 10.
Around these years, increasing imports of U.S. beef helped lower beef prices and changed the Japanese diet dramatically, even before the government gave up large-scale whaling, Kikuchi said.
Nowadays, there are few fishmongers in local communities and consumers have the chance to buy whale meat and products in Tokyo only at the wholesale market or, rarely, at supermarkets, if they dare to bear the high prices.
The Tsukiji-based broker sells ordinary lean meat at 3,300 yen per kilogram, but it no longer deals in onomi because small cetaceans like minke whales have only fatless tails, one employee said. Kikuchi said onomi should be some 10 times as expensive as ordinary lean meat.
It is also rare to have whale dishes at restaurants, unless people go to Kujiraya or some other such restaurant.
Kikuchi said he has been serving raw whale meat for the 25 years he has run his own sushi bar when he finds good enough meat on the market, usually only five or six days a year.
Japanese government officials say consumption will increase if prices fall in line with a lifting of the ban on commercial whaling.
But they add that even if the ban is lifted, prospects are dim for quotas to be set at commercially feasible levels. (Kyodo News) April 22,
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