“Destigmatization” of him whale meat manage whaling and restaurants in cooperation with their competent travel agency Japan so, after decades of being in the shadow of Japanese gastronomy and with the decline of the respective market long ago, to convince even the cautious that the respective cuisine is not only pleasant, but also socially acceptable.

At least this is evidenced by an event at the Murasaki restaurant in Osaka, hosted by a group of journalists and six select influencers (from Thailand, France, Russia and South Korea) from Japan’s largest whaling company, as well as the tourism industry. officials.

“We need to control the whale population to protect the ecosystem. It’s about responsible consumers,” notes Hideki Tokoro, CEO of Kyodo Senpaku, Japan’s largest whaling company, which claims that hunting whales, which consume 4% of their body weight daily, contributes to the proper balance of the marine food chain.

Under his leadership, Kyodo Senpaku is trying to change the negative rhetoric around whale meat.

“Times have changed and we want to be completely transparent… This includes open communication with the international media,” a company spokesman for Konomo Kumbo, who declined to serve food and drink at the event, told the Guardian.

Japan’s whaling industry has failed to convince local consumers to include whale meat in their diet, which despite being a major source of protein after World War II has been drastically reduced since the 1970s amid severe food shortages. chicken and beef are becoming more accessible to citizens.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Japanese consumed 233,000 tons of whale meat in 1962, far more than beef (157,000 tons) and chicken (155,000 tons).

The event, the first of its kind, was part of an unprecedented public relations campaign for the whaling industry, four years after the country’s whalers left the waters of the Southern Ocean to focus on hunting cetaceans in coastal waters, where Kyodo Senpaku annually catches 25 sei whales and 187 Bryde’s whales.

For decades whaling for “scientific” reasons it has been synonymous with conflict with activists even on the high seas and strong criticism from countries against the practice.

Now, however, whale meat is seen as one of the attractions for tourists, and suppliers and catering establishments are working with the Japan Tourism Bureau (JTB) to win over not only those who remain skeptical, but also the time lost due to for pandemic restrictions.

It is noted that two months ago, as part of a campaign to promote whale meat and increase its consumption and income, Kyodo Senpaku launched vending machines offers whale sashimi, fillet and bacon in Yokohama. While similar machines followed in Tokyo and Osaka with the prospect of increasing to 100 in five years. This business initiative caused outrage between animal rights activists and organizations.

Recall that in 2014 the International Court of Justice ruled to suspend all whaling expeditions in Japan, considering that the hunt was not carried out for scientific research, as Japan claims.

Five years later, the country withdrew from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), announcing that it would stop hunting in Antarctica and resume hunting in coastal waters.

Japanese whalers are now allowed they catch about 200 whales in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Source: Guardian/CNN.