Japan’s political brawl for meat

Japan greeted the dispatch yesterday of its largest whaling hunt in two decades with a collective yawn, when factory ship Nisshin Maru and three chaser ships left after its ceremonial departure to newer levels of whaling from Shimonoseki.

Six ships and dozens of men set out to kill nearly 1,000 of the planet's biggest mammals, the largest whaling hunt in two decades. Local media considered the victory of Mizuki Noguchi in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon a more important story. While the rest of the world reacts with fury to these whaling expeditions, Japan shrugs its shoulders and says "What's the fuss?" The government's $1bn campaign to overturn the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling has been waged largely out of sight. Most Japanese would rather eat hamburger than whale. Hundreds of tonness of whale meat sits in freezers. The Fisheries Agency sees itself as Japan's defender against Western "culinary imperialism" and its right to marine resources. The agency says Japan's low food self-sufficiency – less than 40 per cent – gives it the right to hunt all sustainable sea life, including whales.

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