Japan Launches Whaling Mission

S H I M O N O S E K I, Japan, Nov. 17, 2000 -- Shrugging off possible U.S. sanctionsover its expanded whale hunt, Japan threw a party today as a fleetof ships headed off for the Antarctic on a mission to take 400minke whales over the next five months.

This port on the southwestern tip of Japan’s main island bid arousing farewell to the five-ship fleet — part of the country’smuch-criticized whale research program — with a brass band, beertoasts and fireworks.

“We want everyone to understand that the research we are doingis necessary,” Shimonoseki Mayor Kiyoshi Ejima told the crew anddozens of officials and spectators under tents set up on the wharf.

World Is Watching

The hunt comes as President Clinton is deciding whether torecommend sanctions against Japan over the expansion of its hunt inthe North Pacific. Japan was already hunting minke whales, but itnow will target Bryde’s and sperm whales too. Both are protectedunder U.S. law.

Commercial whaling has been banned for the last two decades, butTokyo defends its hunts as scientific research allowed by theInternational Whaling Commission. It argues that it gains valuabledata on sea resources through its whale catch and denies that thehunting endangers any species.

Critics, though, say the program is simply a cover to supplyJapanese restaurants with pricey whale meat.

The dispute is beginning to dog Japanese officialsinternationally. Clinton brought up the conflict in talks Thursdaywith Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori at the Asia PacificEconomic Cooperation summit in Brunei.

Clinton told Mori the hunt could hurt vital U.S.-Japanrelations, but he did not specifically mention sanctions. Morianswered in line with long-standing Japanese policy: that science,not emotion, should guide the discussion.

Clinton is expected to decide before leaving office in Januarywhether to recommend that Congress impose sanctions, which couldinclude denying Japan the right to fish in U.S. waters, or evenstiffer penalties.

Japan Is Wary of Scrutiny

In Shimonoseki today, speakers from the city government andthe national Fisheries Agency praised the research, which Japanargues is needed mainly to monitor whale consumption of fishstocks. Materials handed out at the wharf included severalphotographs of opened whale bellies gorged with fish and squid.

Officials, however, are clearly sensitive to the foreigncriticism. The Fisheries Agency in Tokyo, for example, refused toconfirm the schedule of the fleet as late as Thursday afternoon.

Speakers today made frequent mention of the heat the programis taking abroad. They warned the crew several times before leavingto be on the lookout for anti-whaling groups who may try tointerfere with the mission.

“Even if they protest, please continue with your work,” saidSeiji Osumi, head of the research institute.

Whaling opponents say the dispute has become such anationalistic issue in Japan that they are reluctant to openlyprotest ceremonies like the one held today for fear of beingdismissed as anti-Japanese.

“In Japan, it’s difficult to explain why we’re protesting thehunt,” said Junko Sakurai of Greenpeace Japan. She stealthilyhanded a reporter her business card at the ceremony, worrying thatofficials nearby might hassle her if they knew she was an activist.

The fleet was led by mother ship Nisshin Maru, which features abasketball court-sized deck area for carving up the catch. Behindit at the dock was one of the hunting ships, with a harpoon gunmounted on its bow.

Carnival Send-Off

The ceremony had a carnival-like atmosphere: Women presentedofficials with bouquets of flowers, and crew members handed outcases of beer, cracking them open and downing them to a cheer of“Kampai!”

A brass band played a marching tune on the wharf, and wives andfriends waved farewell to crew members as they sailed off.Fireworks boomed in the overcast sky. Schoolchildren waved littleblue flags with whales printed on them.

Despite all the controversy, whaling in Japan is not what itused to be. While whale meat was a key source of protein rightafter World War II, most Japanese rarely eat it now except as adelicacy in expensive restaurants.

“This business is on the way out. No young people are gettinginto it anymore,” said Tadaaki Ito, 72, a whale-meat wholesalerwho remembers the days when Japan took thousands of whales. “Massproduction, mass sales — it’s impossible now.”

People in the crowd — most of them with husbands or friendsgoing out to sea — dismissed all the criticism.

“I think it’s good to do research,” said a woman at the wharfwho refused to give her name. “It’s just a political problem.”