Why does japan hunt whales

Demand for whale has been stagnant for more than a decade at roughly 5, tonnes annually. That breaks down to roughly 40 grams per person a year, or half the mass of a medium-sized apple. Nobody in the industry expects demand or profits to grow rapidly when commercial whaling resumes. But Japan has long felt vulnerable about food security. For the last 20 years, according to Agriculture Ministry data, only about 40 percent of the calories the average Japanese person consumes every day is domestically produced.

Others say whale provides protein with a smaller carbon footprint than beef or pork. This story removes extraneous words in paragraph This is the third year since Japan resumed commercial whaling in , for the first time in 31 years.

While the wholesale market for whale meat in Japan has annual sales of about 2. Kyodo Senpaku Co. The plan features a significant cost reduction, with the new vessel expected to be constructed for about 6 billion yen, instead of the originally estimated billion yen.

The company plans to raise the funds fully through a combination of lending and crowdfunding. Starting in the current fiscal year, which began in April, the agency has replaced subsidies to the firm with loans. But some questions remain about the future of Japanese whaling. The firm is working on a blueprint to build a vessel with a long cruising range and a sturdy structure capable of withstanding collisions with floating ice.

When Japan decided to restart commercial whaling, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, now the prime minister, said Japan would not hunt whales in the seas around Antarctica, in an effort to seek understanding from the international community. Japan should not forget this promise. So what's really behind resistance to the moratorium?

From the Japanese perspective, banning whaling before banning the killing of other animals is a bit logically inconsistent. If your argument is about conservation, then bluefin tuna, a far more important part of the Japanese diet, is also far more endangered. Minke whales, the species Japanese whalers hunt, aren't even close to endangered, though the IWC claims minke whale numbers have fallen in recent decades.

If your argument is that hunting whales is cruel, so is factory farming. If your argument is that whales are smart, so are pigs. None of this amounts to a case for eating whales, of course, but the argument to single out whales for protection is not exactly airtight either.

Activism rides on symbolic actions.