Sun, Mar 18, 2007 page12

• Japanese stand firm on whaling

  Japan's almost Captain Ahab-like fixation with the leviathans of the deep cause it great trouble in its international relations, but still it persists with its annual cull

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Why does Japan insist on whaling?

  The Japanese suffered a major embarrassment recently when they had to cut short their annual whale-hunting season in the Antarctic after a fire crippled their main ship and killed a crewmember. The 1.3 million liters of fuel in the vessel threatened to leak out into the pristine waters, a potential public relations nightmare.

  A few weeks earlier, more than half the members of the International Whaling Commission, led by anti-whaling nations like the US, Britain and Australia, boycotted a conference that Japan had called in Tokyo to discuss the resumption of commercial whaling.

  

  Students prepare to have their lunch consisting of whale meat stewed in ketchup at a school in Ayukawa, Japan, on Feb. 16.

  PHOTO: NY TIMES

  Why does Japan go through the annual clashes with anti-whaling ships from Western environmental groups? Why does it subject itself to the opprobrium its so-called scientific whaling elicits in the very same countries with which Tokyo proclaims to have shared values? Out of all possible issues, why defy the US on this one?

  After all, current demand for whale meat in Japan is abysmally low. Even in a town like Ayukawa -- a small northern community at the tip of a peninsula that juts into the Pacific Ocean, home to a century-old whaling tradition -- officials are struggling to preserve the tradition of eating whale meat by serving it in classroom lunches. Whale nuggets stewed in ketchup was on the menu on a recent Friday.

  "I believe this is our traditional culture," said Natsumi Saito, 15, a junior in high school. "It's whaling that made this town famous."

  For Japan as a whole, whaling is a far more complex issue. It is intricately tied to Japan's relations with the West, especially the US.

  It comes as little surprise that foreign opposition to whaling has fueled nationalist sentiments in Japan. What is far less known is how the US instigated, at least partly, Japan's nationalist obsession with whaling by first encouraging the Japanese in the postwar years to hunt and eat whale meat, and then urging them to stop.

  Tokyo is leading a worldwide campaign, arguing that it has the right to manage natural resources and that whale meat is part of its traditional culture.

  The clash over the practice emerged with the US-led environmental movement, which emphasized the belief that endangered animals should be protected and that certain highly evolved ones, like whales, should not be killed at all. Under a 1986 ban on commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission, Japan was allowed to engage in limited, scientific whaling of certain species -- for things like gauging populations and tracking movements -- and to sell the meat for consumption.

  Japan has maintained ever since that human beings should be allowed to consume any animal as long as the fishing or hunting is sustainable. To establish this point, Japan sends whalers all the way to the Antarctic's international waters, said Tetsu Sato, a professor of environmental science at Nagano University. In a world of diminishing marine resources, establishing this principle is critical to Japan's long-term food security and managing natural resources, he said.

  "Precisely because whaling attracts so much worldwide attention, Japan can't afford to lose," said Sato, who supports whaling.

  Last year, Japan killed 1,073 minke whales, which ended up in restaurants, supermarkets, school cafeterias or unsold. Most biologists agree that certain species of whales, including the minke, have not only recovered but are now thriving. Disagreement remains, however, about whether they can be harvested in a sustainable way.

  But arguments about resource management do not resonate as much as those about culture.

  "I was afraid that our food culture was going to die, so that's why we began serving whale meat in school cafeterias," said Shigehiko Azumi, 80, who served as mayor here when the ban went into effect.

  Few deny that whaling is part of Ayukawa's culture. But opinions divide over whether it is part of the culture of Japan.

  To maintain the tradition, Ayukawa has tried to make strong-smelling whale meat more palatable to youthful tastes by stewing it in ketchup or serving it sweet-and-sour style.

  Yoichi Nishimura, 55, a city agricultural official who grew up eating whale meat, said ketchup and other nontraditional ways of preparing whale meat were just facts of modern life.

  "But it definitely is a little strange," he said.
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