Whale Meat for Sale in Japan: Hunters Justify Serving It in Restos As a Way to Control Mammal Population

Hunters claim that the sale of whale meat in Japanese restaurants is an effort to reduce the number of mammals.

The most contentious cuisine from Japan is now being served in restaurants for the first time. It was prepared, cooked, grilled, and served to the guests as part of a two-hour feast that served as a test run for the new cuisine.

The jaw, belly, ribs, tail, cheek, and back of a whale were used to make dishes.

As the banquet ended, the hosts hope that consumers will realize that whale meat is delicious and that eating it is a socially acceptable element of the tourist experience after years and years of hiding in the culinary shadows.

Hunting Whales Protects the Food Chain

Hideki Tokoro, CEO of Kyodo Senpaku, the largest whaling company in Japan, gave a motivational speech to kick off the evening. He claimed that hunting whales, which consume an amount equal to 4% of their body weight every day, helped safeguard the marine food web.

Tokoro stated that to protect the ecosystem, it is necessary to control the whale population. He also added that eating whales at restaurants involves being a responsible customer.

Under Tokoro, Kyodo Senpaku is attempting to change the unfavorable perception of whale meat by interacting with people whom it once regarded with suspicion.

Whaling Industry and the Food Shortage

The domestic consumer has not been persuaded to include whale meat regularly by Japan's whaling industry. Despite being a key source of protein during the post-second world war food shortages, consumption started to decline in the 1970s as pork, chicken, and beef became more readily available.

In 1962, Japanese consumers consumed 233,000 tonnes of whale meat, more than double the 157,000 and 155,000 tonnes consumed of beef and chicken, respectively, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

Masa, the event's emcee, urged the attendees to "keep an open mind" as some of them tried the dish for the very first time. He gushed about the health benefits of whale meat as staff served plates of deep-fried kushiage with dipping sauce.

Masa emphasized that whale meat contains more protein and fewer calories than chicken. Masa acknowledged, however, that there was reluctance to consume "unusual" foods in nations where whale meat was not a staple of the diet.

Tourist Attraction vs. Conservation Groups

The whaling industry launched a first-of-its-kind public relations campaign, which included the banquet. Four years after the nation's whalers abandoned the Southern Ocean to concentrate in coastal waters. There, Kyodo Senpaku catches 187 Bryde's whales and 25 sei whales annually.

Intense meetings of the International Whaling Commission [IWC], the body that oversees the industry, confrontations with activists on the high seas, and criticism from Australia as well as other anti-whaling countries were all part of Japan's "scientific" whaling program for decades.

However, whale meat is now being promoted as a tourist attraction. Both the restaurants and suppliers are collaborating with the Japan Travel Bureau to win over skeptics in advance of a sharp increase in foreign visitors following the lifting of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

When Kyodo Senpaku began using vending machines to sell whale meat earlier this year to increase consumption, the company infuriated activists for animal rights. However, Senpaku explained that it was a way to protect the whaling industry, according to Asia News Network.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation organization called the project a "chilling marketing move" meant to "protect a failing industry" that will receive more than 5 billion yen in government subsidies from Japan in 2020, The Guardian reports.