Japan lawmakers munch whale away from foreign eyes
Date: 10-May-02
Country: JAPAN
Foreign media were barred from the cetacean repast, held to tout Japan's view that eating whale is a cherished cultural tradition and that a ban on mass hunts of the mammals be lifted.
Japan will push its campaign to resume commercial whaling - anathema to environmentalists worried about endangered species and appalled by the slaughter of the intelligent mammals - when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) kicks off its main annual meetings in the southwestern whaling city of Shimonoseki on May 20.
But some 40 lawmakers, among them Agriculture Minister Tsutomu Takebe, shied away from broadcasting their whale munching overseas.
"We invited overseas media to a similar event in the past, but the images were not used fairly," said an organiser.
"Very fine dishes will be prepared, and it would be alright if the reporting centred on that," he added. "But the foreign media always focuses on the fact that whale is being eaten."
Foreign reporters have been welcome at other lawmaker feasts in the past, most recently late last year when a group dined on domestic beef to reassure consumers after an outbreak of mad cow disease.
Whale was once an important protein source for an impoverished Japan in the dark days just after its World War Two defeat, but it is now an expensive gourmet food.
Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an IWC moratorium, but began what it calls scientific research whaling the next year.
Most of the meat ends up on store shelves and restaurant tables.
Whale cuisine is set to appear on banquet tables at a reception for IWC delegates in Shimonoseki later this month.