TOKYO, July 2, 2019—A fleet of harpoon-installed ships July 1 were gearing for weeks-long hunting voyages at Shimonoseki and Taichi in western Japan, homes to Japan’s once-thriving commercial whaling and, also, key electorates of prime minister Shinzo Abe and Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary-general of Abe’s ruling party.
It’s no coincidence that Abe had instructed his government to resume commercial whaling for the first time since 1988 after the International Whaling Commission banned it in 1986 to protect whale populations and species. Even though Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party commands a comfortable popular support exceeding 50 percent, even a small setback in the July 21 House of Councilors election below the previous race can be deemed Abe’s loss raising pressure for him to step down. Ditto with Nikai as the duo are increasingly seen as detriments to appointing young LDP members to visible posts.
Abe’s thinking is this:whaling resumption would help fishermen, many of them pro-LDP, suffering depleting catches caused by climate change, increasing Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese fishing in traditional fishing waters where Japanese fishermen had almost exclusively operated, and reduced fishing quotas set in negotiations with Russia in northern waters. They’s vote for LDP, particularly Shimonoseki and Taichi and other Wakayama prefecture voters.
At a July 1 news conference, deputy cabinet secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura, said that Japan would ensure that its whaling will be scientifically managed so as not to adversely affect whale populations and that Tokyo would explain its policy to other countries. He also said, ‘Our hope is that our whaling operations will become commercially viable promptly so that Japan’s ‘whaling culture’ can be passed on to the next generation,’ according to the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper’s website July 2.
The Fisheries Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries July 1 released a statement that emphasized that commercial whaling will be performed within Japan’s sovereign waters and its whaling vessels won’t operate in the Arctic and Antarctic seas for both commercial and research purposes. (http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/press/kokusai/190701.html – in Japanese) It said scientific ground that Japan deploys for commercial whaling is based on the method developed by the IWC and that according to this method, Japan’s huting would not exceed 1/100th of resources.
The agency’s statement said Japan had set quotas to catch 50 Minke whales, 150 Bryde whales, and 25 eagle whales between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2019. The three species are smaller – no larger than 18 meters – than humpback whales. The Mink population in the Northwest Pacific is 20,513; Bryde 34,473 in the North Pacific; and 34,718, also in the North Pacific, according to the statement. It said Iceland caught 217 Minke in 2018; Norway 1,278 Minke; and the United States 51 Arctic whales.
Ships from Shimonoseki are a fleet of one mother ship and three harpoon ships. Five other ships are permitted to operate from other ports – Abashiri and Kushiro in Hokkaido, Hachinohe in Aomori, Ishinomaki in Miyagi, Minami Boso in Chiba, and Taichi in Wakayama.
On the retail market level, the question is whether Japanese consumers save generations over 70 years old consume whale meat on a regular basis. Seventy some olds were fed whale meat as school lunch because other meat varieties were beyond budget reach. Now, beef, pork, and chicken are affordable for both school lunches and homes and prices are far more reasonable than whale meat, which is priced far higher than other meats. In 2018, Japan’s per capital whale meat consumption was about 30 grams, or once ounce.
Toshio Aritake