Hall of Shame: Cafes That Serve Whale In Nagoya

This is used as public information for those who seek to know where whale is served for personal information.  After all, whaling is strictly for scientific research in Japan.

Packages of Whale Meat in Matsuzakaya Dept. Store, Sakae, Nagoya

Kujira Cafe (くじら　カフｴ)

Kotobukiya (寿商店)

Gansokujiraya (元祖 くじら屋)

Japan Begins Whaling Operation

The day after US President Obama left Japan, a Japanese whaling fleet left port Saturday under tight security in the first hunt since the U.N.‘s top court last month ordered Tokyo to stop killing whales in the Antarctic.

Four ships departed from the fishing town of Ayukawa in the northeast, marking this season’s start to a coastal whaling program not covered by the International Court of Justice’s landmark ruling—which found Japan’s Southern Ocean expedition was a commercial activity masquerading as research.

Some observers had predicted the Japanese government would use the cover of last month’s court ruling to abandon what many have long considered the facade of a scientific hunt.

But Tokyo’s decision to continue whaling was likely to set off a new battle with critics who had hoped the ruling would bring an end to a slaughter that the Japanese government has embraced as part of the island nation’s cultural heritage.

Some Japanese politicians have derided criticism from abroad as little more than cultural imperialism by the West, while locals in Ayukawa expressed fears the court’s decision could ultimately ruin their livelihoods.

Around 10:30 a.m., whistles sounded as the flotilla accompanied by a trio of coastguard patrol boats set off following a ceremony attended by about 100 local dignitaries and crew.

There were, however, no protestors among the crowd—a far cry from the Antarctic hunt which saw sometimes violent clashes between Japanese whaling crews and activists trying to end the hunt.

The town on Japan’s northeast coast was ravaged by Japan’s 2011 tsunami and still bears the scars of the disaster. Local people say their small community’s existence rests heavily on the hunt.

“No matter what the court ruling was, all we can do is let everyone see that we’re still hanging in there,” said Koji Kato, a 22-year-old crew member.

“People from outside are saying a lot of things, but we want them to understand our perspective as much as possible. For me, whaling is more attractive than any other job.”

Yuki Inomata, works in a local whale meat processing factory, said he was “glad” that the annual hunt got under way despite questions about the future of the industry in Japan.

“I don’t know what will happen next but I hope we can continue whaling,” said Inomata.

Tokyo called off the 2014-15 season for its Antarctic hunt, and said it would redesign the controversial whaling mission in a bid to make it more scientific.

But vessels would still go to the icy waters to carry out “non-lethal research”, raising the possibility that harpoon ships would return the following year.

That would put Japan on a collision course with anti-whaling nations like Australia, which brought the case to the international court, arguing that Tokyo’s research was aimed at skirting a ban on commercial whaling.

Japan has hunted whales under a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium that allowed it to conduct lethal research on the mammals, but has openly admitted that their meat made its way onto menus.

Tokyo has always maintained that it intended to prove the whale population was large enough to sustain commercial hunting. The coastal whaling program in places like Ayukawa is considered part of “research” whaling, but was not targeted at the court battle in The Hague.

Like the United States, Japan extensively hunted whales in the 19th century, when they were a source of fuel and food.

But the country’s taste for whale meat has considerably diminished in recent decades as it has become richer and has been able to farm more of its protein.

On Tuesday, a new poll showed 60% of Japanese people support the country’s whaling program, but only 14% eat whale meat. Although not difficult to find in Japan, whale meat is not a regular part of most Japanese people’s diet.

However, powerful lobbying forces have ensured Tokyo continues to subsidise the hunt with taxpayers’ money.

© 2014 AFP

Japan Rejects ICJ Whaling Verdict - Redesigns Whaling Program

Japan said Friday it would redesign its controversial Antarctic whaling mission in a bid to make it more scientific, after a United Nations court ruled it was a commercial hunt masquerading as research.

The bullish response, which could see harpoon ships back in the Southern Ocean next year, sets Tokyo back on a collision course with environmentalists.

Campaigners had hailed the decision by the International Court of Justice, with hopes that it might herald the end of a practice they view as barbaric.

“We will carry out extensive studies in cooperation with ministries concerned to submit a new research program by this autumn to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), reflecting the criteria laid out in the verdict,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Japan, a member of the IWC, has hunted whales under a loophole allowing for lethal research. It has always maintained that it was intending to prove the whale population was large enough to sustain commercial hunting.

But it never hid the fact that the by-product of whale meat made its way onto menus.

“The verdict confirmed that the (IWC moratorium) is partly aimed at sustainable use of whale resources.

“Following this, our country will firmly maintain its basic policy of conducting whaling for research, on the basis of international law and scientific foundations, to collect scientific data necessary for the regulation of whale resources, and aim for resumption of commercial whaling.”

Hayashi, who had met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier in the day, confirmed an earlier announcement that the 2014-15 hunt in the Southern Ocean would not go ahead.

Last month’s court ruling does not apply to Japan’s two other whaling programs: a “research” hunt in coastal waters and in the northwestern Pacific, and a much smaller program that operates along the coast, which is not subject to the international ban.

Hayashi said the northwestern Pacific hunt, which is due to depart Japanese shores on April 26, would continue, albeit in a slightly reduced form.

There was media speculation that the start of the next Pacific hunt had been delayed from April 22 to 26 to avoid a clash with a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said the delay appeared to be an effort to avoid overshadowing the visit with an activity widely denigrated in the West.

The United States is a major voice in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) against hunting, but is also Tokyo’s chief ally in the global community.

A fisheries agency official confirmed that the fleet would set sail on April 26, a day after Obama leaves Japan.

A statement released by the fisheries agency said the hunt would be scaled back, and was aiming to net around 100 minke whales in coastal waters, down from 120 last year, and 110 other whales offshore, down from 160. No minke whales would be caught in the deep ocean.

An element of the court’s ruling was that the Japanese mission was catching far too many whales for it to be considered legitimate scientific research.

Some commentators had suggested that Tokyo might use the court decision as cover to retreat from an entrenched position in which it defended as vital cultural heritage a practice that costs a lot of taxpayers’ money and does not enjoy much public support.

Friday’s announcement will come as a blow to anti-whaling campaigners, who had urged Tokyo to follow the spirit of the court ruling and heed global public opinion, which they say is firmly against hunting whales.

Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd, whose sometimes aggressive confrontations with Japanese whaling boats on the high seas saw them labelled “pirates” by a U.S. judge, said earlier this month they expected Tokyo to try to work around the court ruling.

Hayashi said Friday that Tokyo would redouble its efforts to foil potential saboteurs who have trailed their fleets around the Southern Ocean for several years.

“As for unlawful acts of violence committed by anti-whaling organizations, we will study counter-measures in line with a new research program from the standpoint of ensuring the safety of the research fleet, researchers and crew members,” he said.

© 2014 AFP

Whale Hunt Postponed Until After Obama Visit

Japan has delayed the start of its next “research” whaling mission by a few days, an official said Thursday, amid media speculation the postponement was to avoid a clash with a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

A ruling late last month that Tokyo’s Antarctic hunt breached international rules that ban commercial whaling sparked celebrations among environmentalists around the world, with some heralding an end to the slaughter.

But the declaration by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) does not apply to Japan’s other whaling programs—a hunt it carries out in the northwest Pacific in the name of science and a smaller coastal program.

The fleet for the Pacific hunt was originally scheduled to sail next Tuesday, the day before Obama is due to arrive for a three-day state visit at the start of an Asian tour.

The mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said the delay appeared to be an effort to avoid overshadowing the visit with an activity widely denigrated in the West.

An official from the fisheries agency confirmed to AFP that the departure had been delayed, but insisted it was nothing to do with the high-profile visit.

“We have received a report from local fishermen that they have postponed the departure from April 22 to 26 because they need more time to gather crew members,” he said.

“Since the government has not yet made a clear decision on the Pacific whaling research program in the wake of the (U.N.) verdict (on the Southern Ocean program), they could not decide exactly when to sail,” he said. “But the decision on when to depart is one that is taken by the crew.”

The hunt in the northwestern Pacific operates two excursions a year, in coastal waters and offshore, from early summer through autumn.

The United States is a major voice in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) against hunting, which Japan has carried out using a loophole that allows for “lethal research” on the mammals.

It never made a secret of the fact that the whale meat from these hunts often ends up on dining tables.

Australia, backed by New Zealand, hauled Japan before The Hague-based ICJ in 2010 in a bid to end the annual Southern Ocean hunt.

Japan had argued that its JARPA II research program was aimed at studying the viability of whale hunting, but the ICJ found it had failed to examine ways of doing the research without killing whales, or at least while killing fewer of them.

Tokyo this month said it was calling off the 2014-15 hunt in the Southern Ocean, but insisted it had made no decision on whether to resume its Antarctic whaling later, perhaps with a redesigned research program.

© 2014 AFP

ICR Says It Will Resume Whaling

The group that conducts Japan’s whaling says it expects to resume scientific whaling in the Antarctic after this year’s hunt was cancelled following an order by an international court.

Last month’s judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered a halt to Japan’s decades-old program of “scientific whaling” in the Southern Ocean, a practice environmentalists condemn, but Tokyo said it would abide by the decision and has cancelled the 2014-2015 hunt.

But court papers filed in the United States by the Institute for Cetacean Research, which, with Kyodo Senpaku, actually carries out the whaling, said they expect to conduct hunts in future seasons - albeit with a modified program.

In the filing in a Seattle court last week, the two groups sought an injunction against Sea Shepherd, an environmental group that has pursued Japan’s whaling ships during their Antarctic hunts over the past few years. They noted that the Japanese government had not granted permits for the next season.

“Plaintiffs expect they will be conducting a Southern Ocean research program for subsequent seasons that would be in accord with the ICJ decision,” they added, according to the papers, which were obtained by Reuters.

An Institute spokesman declined to comment, citing the court case and adding that any decisions about whether it would resume whaling would be made by the government.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Tuesday reiterated that the government has yet to make a decision but it may not take much longer.

“At the moment we are carefully analyzing the content of the ruling,” Suga told a news conference. “After analyzing what the issues are, the government will come up with a policy course.”

Japan has long maintained that most whale species are in no danger of extinction and scientific whaling is necessary to manage what it sees as a marine resource that, after World War Two, was an important protein source for an impoverished nation.

Japan also conducts separate hunts in the northern Pacific, while its fishermen engage in small-scale coastal whaling. An annual dolphin slaughter has also drawn harsh global criticism.

The ICJ ruling said no further licenses should be issued for scientific whaling, in which animals are first examined for research purposes before the meat is sold, noting that the research objectives had to be sufficient to “justify the lethal sampling”.

Kyodo Senpaku, which owns Japan’s whaling fleet, said on Tuesday it had urged Agriculture Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi to allow the northern Pacific whaling to take place as usual, national broadcaster NHK said.

“The minister gave us strong encouragement by saying that he would firmly consider it, given that the research itself was not gainsaid,” Ito said. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.

At the time of the court ruling, observers said one possibility could indeed be for Japan to scale back its whaling plan and submit a new proposal that might be more acceptable in light of the ruling.

“When the ICJ verdict was issued, I ... could see the potential for the Institute for Cetacean Research to rewrite their program and to return,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said on the organization’s website.

“My prediction was that they would return for the 2015-2016 season. It seems that this is exactly what they intend to do.”

But other observers say that with Japan’s whaling fleet in need of refurbishment and consumer interest in whale meat low, the court ruling might give the government the chance to abandon an expensive program - and boost its international standing.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014.