Wingfield-Hayes, R. (2016, February 8). Japan and the whale. Retrieved June 01, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749
This BBC article by Wingfield-Hayes is excellent in that it puts Japanese whaling in historical and cultural perspective, but it also brings up some interesting facts which few people are aware of. One thing I learned from the article was that although Japan had done small scale COASTAL whaling for centuries, it was General Douglas MacAuthur who, after the 2nd World War, encouraged Japan to transform two gigantic US Navy tankers into factory ships that were capable of sailing to the Southern Ocean to catch whales. From the end of the war until the mid 1960s whale meat was the main source of meat that was eaten in Japan. According to the article at “its peak in 1964 Japan killed more than 24,000 whales in one year.”
So, whaling did play an important role in feeding a hungry Japan after the War. The problem is that these days whaling does not provide any economic or nutritional benefit to Japan. On the contrary, the Japanese taxpayer subsidies almost the full cost of the so-called research whaling that continues to be done. Unlike the coastal whaling that is truly traditional in Japan and goes back hundreds of years, the minke and fin whales caught in the Southern Ocean (Antartica) is done in a very non-traditional way…using factory ships and harpoon cannons mounted on the bows. Some of the whales caught, such as the fin whale, are on CITES endangered species list of animals that are banned for hunting and commerce.
Way does Japan continue to send ships half-way around the world to slaughter whales? The article provides interesting insight into this question. Politicians representing local areas in Japan that are still involved in whaling, such as Ishinomaki and Taiji, try to protect their local industries in order to get votes. In addition, there are government bureaucrats in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries whose job it is to promote whaling and make research and expedition plans. They do not want to lose their budget or personnel. So, whaling is continuing not mainly for patriotic or cultural reasons, but for political and boring bureaucratic ones.
