This week’s featured article

KYODO

Whale meat auctions were held Thursday in different areas of Japan earlier this week, the first since the country ended its 31-year commercial whaling hiatus, with some cuts selling for over ¥10,000 per kilogram. A whaling fleet left Kushiro in Hokkaido on Monday to hunt in coastal waters and took two minke whales later the same day. Approximately 66 kilograms of meat from one of the two animals was then brought to Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, for the auction because a vessel from the whaling town was among the fleet.

About 10 brokers from Taiji, regarded as the birthplace of whaling in Japan, took part in the auction. “I’m very moved by how this meat came from a ship from Taiji,” said 59-year-old Yoshifumi Kai, a member of the town’s fishing cooperative. “It’s higher quality, unlike that from research whaling, as they drained the blood aboard. I want people to understand that whale meat tastes good.”

The red whale meat costs ¥598 for 100 grams at a supermarket run by the group. Auctions were also held in Aomori and Miyagi prefectures, with certain cuts snatching up to ¥15,000 per kg at an event in Sendai. Approximately 130 kg of red meat was auctioned off at about ¥4,500 to ¥7,000 per kg to numerous fishmongers and restaurants in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. In Kushiro, whale meat lined shopping aisles after being sold for as high as ¥4,000 per kg. On Monday, a separate fleet also departed from the port of Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Japan restarted commercial whaling a day after formally withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission. The IWC was founded in 1948 and Japan joined it in 1951. It was originally composed of whaling nations, but an increasing number of anti-whaling member states led the IWC to adopt a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. As an IWC member, Japan halted commercial whaling in 1988, but hunted whales for what it claims were research purposes, a practice criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling.

Japan had long sought to lift the moratorium and finally left the IWC on Sunday after the organization last September voted down its proposal to resume commercial whaling of species considered abundant such as minke whales.

First published in The Japan Times on July. 4.

Warm up

One-minute chat about hunting

Game

Collect words related to whales: e.g., sea, big, endangered …

New words

1) hiatus: a gap or pause in continuity, e.g. “The school band is taking a hiatus from its club activities.”

2) moratorium: a legally authorized suspension or delay, e.g. “The government declared a moratorium on the use of nuclear weapons.”

Guess the headline

First whale meat a_ _ _ _ _ _ held since restart of Japan’s c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ hunt

Questions

1) How many whales were hunted on the first day?

2) How much did the whale meat sell for?

3) During its time in the International Whaling Commission, did Japan hunt any whales?

Let’s discuss the article

1) Have you eaten whale meat before?

2) What do you think about commercial whale hunting?

3) Do you think Japan should have remained in the International Whaling Commission?

Reference

鯨肉は日本人、特に高齢者にとっては食品の一つであり、戦時中は給食にもなるほどのたんぱく質であったそうですが、国際的な世論から見ると日本の捕鯨は野蛮な行為として悪名高くなっています。日本と国際世論の溝が埋まらない中、IWCを脱退するまでに至った日本で鯨の漁が再開されました。伝統的な食文化と世界を周遊する生物のどちらを守るのかは難しい選択ですが、これから鯨肉は再び私たちにとって身近な存在となるのでしょうか。朝英語の会に参加し皆さんで話し合ってみましょう。