The war of words is heating up in the weeks leading up to the International Whaling Commission’s annual conference, held this year in Ulsan, South Korea Thanks to a combination of strong arm tactics and plain bribery, Japan is close to having the numbers it needs to proceed with its plans to take humpback whales off the banned list, double its kill to about 800 minke whales a year for “scientific” purposes, and add 50 fin whales to its annual catch to boot. All of this is making lot of people very, very angry.

Just to prove their concerns are purely mercenary rather than simply sentimental, New Zealanders claim Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean will harm tourism – according to the bottom line, whales are worth more alive than dead.

Australia is busy organizing a coalition to block Japan’s push at the upcoming IWC conference to loosen hunting restrictions, and has not ruled out closing its ports to Japanese whaling vessels.

Japan, which was forced by international ban to abandon commercial whaling in 1986 Japan, began its “research whaling program” the next year. Much of the meat ends up on the tables of gourmet restaurants.

The Japanese aren’t going to give up their whale meat without a fight.

Professor Takeo Koizumi of Tokyo Agriculture University says attempts by Australia, New Zealand and other countries to force anti-whaling policies at the IWC is “far removed from democracy” and is “a kind of fascism.”

While it’s probably obvious Prof. Koizumi is not a trained political scientist, there is no doubt the Japanese feel they’re being bullied, and there is clearly a disconnect going on:

• Japanese scientists say minke whale numbers in the Antarctic have trebled in the past 30 years, but the IWC scientific committee says the population has plummeted.
• Japan claims its whale hunt really is conducted for scientific purposes. The World Wildlife counters with this:

For fifteen years Japan has conducted so-called scientific whaling without having one article published in any peer-reviewed scientific journal.

• The Japan Whaling Association pleads its case:

Whales consume as much as six times the volume of fish that humans catch. Whales are eating a disproportionate amount of our marine resources. Because whales are currently protected and may not be harvested, their numbers are increasing, and they are eating larger and larger amounts of fish, leaving many fewer fish for fishermen to take. This is an important reason for the decline of many fisheries resources around the world.

Nobody else seems to agree. In an abstract, FAO counters that excessive fishing capacity (too many boats, and too many government subsidies) and overfishing largely responsible for the degradation of fishery resources.

No matter what, Japan is convinced there are too many whales in the world’s oceans and the population must be “managed.” The predominantly Western countries that oppose whaling do so, insists Japan, for sentimental reasons. Everybody rushes to protect “charismatic megafauna” such as pandas, elephants, and, of course, whales, but what about the endangered Kauai wolf spider?

However, in the face of scientific fact that more than strongly suggests whaling is proven to be very, very naughty indeed, Japan retreats to its own sentimental argument: whaling is all about maintaining an ancient culture. Says the JWA:

Japanese whaling has never been a single economic activity seeking only mercenary profit to get the world commodity such as the whale oil. Rather, it has been a cultural activity of an ethnic group to procure foods. This ethnic aspect has not been easy for other countries to appreciate.

The JWA also claims that whales are basically stupid, bovine creatures, and whaling is a vital component in Japan’s efforts to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency.

Senseless slaughter, says Canada’s Sea Shepherd Society, whose members routinely travel to Taiji, in Wakayama Prefecture (where they are routinely arrested), to protest the annual dolphin hunt there that turns the waters of the bay blood red. The town’s official website (Japanese only) cheerfully leaves out this last bit, but does promote a chance to meet the dolphins interned at the local aquarium.

Despite the supposed limits restricting whaling, it’s not at all unusual to spot “whale meat” in Japanese supermarkets next to packages of sea bream and farmed Norwegian trout. However, it’s more than likely that the whale sold in stores and in the local izakayas is really dolphin (“iruka” in Japanese, rather than the “kujira” usually printed on the packaging) from traditional whaling towns like Taiji.

Before then ban in 1986, whale meat was a staple protein in a country unused to eating beef (four legs bad, finned appendages good). M., my wife, grew up eating whale meat for lunch at school, and claims to like the taste. She also says Westerners are basically hypocrites who eat meat while awarding whales, dolphins and other cetaceans special status for being “cute”.

I have to agree with her – I eat meat and hardly want to be called a hypocrite by own wife. While I don’t have the stomach to eat whale (although if you’re feeling puckish and live in Osaka, you could eat it here) let alone harpoon dolphins down by the shore, at least I can agree that the small-scale whaling practiced at Taiji and other places in Japan is an ancient cultural practice that, with careful management, should remain sustainable into the future.

Of course, slaughtering dolphins is hardly an appealing practice, but that’s culture. Shinran Shonin, after spending many years among the hunters and fishermen of Echigo Province, came to the conclusion that the unclean practice of killing animals is an inescapable part of life for most people, and his thinking helps form many of the core beliefs that make the Japanese who they are.

However, as events unfold in Korea later this month I’ll be rooting for Australia, New Zealand and all the other countries opposed to the an increase in Japan’s “scientific quota.” Industrial whaling has no part in the future of the world’s oceans, which are gradually dying and need our help.