Japan: Who Wants Whale For Dinner Tonight?

Travel around Japan, speaking with Japanese, and the same subjects will surface again and again: Japanese cuisine, your opinion of Japan, how small Japan is, and the best way to learn English. The list goes on, but eating whale is not a topic that often comes up.

Whale is just not among the many topics that Japanese like to talk about. Mention English, sushi, Japanese writing, or Obama and the conversation just flows. Bring up whale and the response and interest is just not there. Read the newspaper or watch the news and the topic will appear with regularity. The same old arguments appear from both sides. The groups opposing whaling will speak with passion of how Japan's research whaling is a fraud conducted to put whale on the table. The pro-whaling groups will speak about how whaling is a part of Japanese culture and whale stocks have sufficiently recovered. The groups usually conclude by stating that people have no right to tell them what to do. They ask why eating beef is fine but eating whales is not.

Both groups may be right but the world is passing them by. While the Japanese population has whale aficionados, they are not standing on every street corner or sitting in every sushi bar. I hear Japanese praise persimmons, sushi, and barbecued beef. They talk about different kinds of rice and ramen, but have a marked lack of interest in whale. I have brought the subject up several times and nobody really seems to care. A few people have replied that they ate it when they were younger, but really don't care for it. There is far more concern about diminishing tuna stocks and increasing prices.

If I visited Taiji in Wakayama prefecture, I might feel differently. Whaling is more important, culturally and historically, to the people of Taiji than other places in Japan. In 1606, organized groups of whalers began hand-harpoon whaling in Taiji. Taiji is the birthplace of Japan's traditional whaling method. Taiji is now known for its annual hunt, slaughter, or killing of dolphins and small whales. Depending on your perspective, you can select the term you prefer. While both Westerners and Japanese criticize the hunt, slaughter, or killing of dolphins and small whales, the people of Taiji need an alternative to replace this source of income. Would a tourist industry centered around dolphin- and whale watching earn enough to do so?

I can't really endorse the killing of Flipper, but neither can I condemn the people of Taiji. I do eat other meats. I can say with certainty, however, that people who eat dolphin or whale frequently are putting their health at risk. Even people who eat too much large fish need to be careful. The marine mammals and large fish toward the top of the food chain store mercury. A recent study done by researchers from Health Sciences University of Hokkaido and Daiichi University's College of Pharmaceutical Studies found some residents of Taiji had dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies.

A few of the residents who were tested had more than 50 parts per million (ppm) for mercury, which can lead to neurological problems. The average mercury level among the residents tested was approximately 10 times the national average in Japan. An earlier study of dolphin meat served to children in school lunches in the Taiji area showed that the mercury was higher than the health ministry's accepted level of 0.4 ppm: over 10 to 16 times higher. This amount of mercury should be setting off warning bells somewhere.

Japanese remember earthquakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters. The memory of the danger of atomic bombs is even stronger. Yet, the Japanese memory of the dangers of mercury poisoning seems much weaker. Has Minamata been forgotten? Chisso Corporation dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury into Minamata Bay, causing severe mercury poisoning to thousands of people. The residents of Taiji are probably consuming some of that very mercury today. Regardless of whether you are for or against whaling, or whether a dolphin is food or Flipper to you, mercury consumption is, like the plague, something to avoid.