Add Category
Japan has proposed a plan to allow the hunting of large fin whales around its coast, sparking backlash from environmental groups.
Japan's Fisheries Agency said it was drafting a revision of its aquatic resource control policies, which widens the allowable catch to fin whales in addition to three smaller whale species.
The proposal comes five years after Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission and resumed commercial whaling within its territorial waters.
Government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Thursday that the Japanese government would continue to promote whaling and take the necessary diplomatic steps.
"Whales are important food resources and should be sustainably utilised, based on scientific evidence," Mr Hayashi told a press conference.
But marine conservation groups have slammed the decision.
"Targeting fin whales is an extremely damaging practice of killing a vital part of the marine ecosystem for a food product that the population simply no longer wants or needs," Lloyd Gofton, managing director of Blue Planet Society told the ABC.
Japan's whale meat popularity
Mr Hayashi, whose electoral district is traditionally known for whaling, said the government supported sustainable use of whales.
"It is also important to carry on Japan's traditional food culture," he said.
Last year, Japanese whalers caught 294 minke, Bryde's and sei whales.
Whale meat consumption in Japan was an affordable source of protein during the malnourished years after World War II.
Consumption peaked at about 230,000 tonnes in 1962.
However, whale was quickly replaced by other meats and supply has since fallen to about 2,000 tonnes in recent years, according to Fisheries Agency statistics.
Japanese officials want to increase that to about 5,000 tonnes, to keep the industry afloat.
Greenpeace has criticised the decision and its framing.
"The Japanese government is talking about commercial whaling, this is entirely different to traditional subsistence hunting practised by Indigenous peoples the world over," said Greenpeace Australia's head of investigations, Nelli Stevenson.
"Indigenous peoples have balanced caring for the environment with traditional ways of feeding their communities for generations."
Whale meat vending machines and a new whaling mother ship
A whaling operator Kyodo Senpaku Company last year launched whale meat vending machines.
The company also completed construction of its new 9,300-ton mother ship called Kangei Maru — and pledges to use it for sustainable commercial whaling.
Mr Gofton said while the decision to broaden commercial whaling was disappointing, it was not surprising.
"Kangei Maru has a slipway built to accommodate fin whales and is capable of returning to the southern ocean. Targeting fin whales was always the next likely outcome," he said.
"Traditions change and it seems the Japanese people have already moved away from this tradition by drastically reducing whale meat from their diet."
He added that hiding behind "tradition" as an excuse to promote whale meat was simply not acceptable.
The Fisheries Agency said it was seeking public comments until June 5 on the proposed plan and would seek its approval at the next review meeting in mid June.