Japan launches whale meat vending machines to boost sales

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — A Japanese whaling operator, after years of struggling to promote its controversial products, has found a new way to attract customers and increase sales: whale meat vending machines.

Kujira (Whale), an auto shop that recently opened in the port city of Yokohama near Tokyo, has three vending machines for whale sashimi, whale bacon, whale skin, and whale steak, as well as canned whale meat, priced from 1,000 yen (7, 70 USD) to 3,000 yen (23 USD).

The outlet features white vending machines adorned with cartoon whales and is the third store to launch in the Japanese metropolitan area. It opened on Tuesday after two others were unveiled in Tokyo earlier this year as part of Kyodo Senpaku Co.’s new sales campaign.

Whale meat has long been a source of controversy, the operator said, but sales from the new vending machines have picked up. Anti-whaling protests have subsided since Japan ended a widely criticized Antarctic exploratory hunt three years ago and resumed commercial whaling off the coast of Japan.

Kyodo Senpaku hopes to expand the vending machines to 100 locations across the country within five years, company spokesman Konomu Kubo told The Associated Press. A fourth is due to open in Osaka next month.

The idea is to open vending machines near supermarkets where whale meat is not normally available to stimulate demand, which is critical to the survival of the industry.

Major supermarket chains have largely stayed away from whale meat to avoid protests by anti-whaling groups, Kubo said, and appear to be remaining cautious, although harassment by activists has subsided in recent years.

“As a result, many consumers who want to eat it cannot find or buy whale meat. For such people, we launched vending machines in unmanned stores,” he said.

Company officials say sales at two outlets in Tokyo were significantly higher than expected, so staff were busy restocking products.

The story goes on

At a store in Yokohama’s Motomachi district, a posh shopping district near Chinatown, 61-year-old customer Mami Kashiwabara immediately chose whale bacon, her father’s favorite. To her dismay, it sold out, so she settled on frozen onomi, a tail meat considered a rare delicacy.

Kashiwabara says she knows about the whaling controversy, but whale meat brings up childhood memories of him eating it at family dinners and school lunches.

“I don’t think it’s pointless to kill whales – it’s good. But whale meat is part of Japanese food culture, and we can respect the life of whales by appreciating their meat,” Kashiwabara said. “I would be happy if I could eat it.”

Kashiwabara said she planned to share with her husband her purchase of a 3,000-yen ($23) handy bite neatly wrapped in a freezer bag with her husband for sake.

The meat mainly comes from whales caught off the northeast coast of Japan.

Japan resumed commercial whaling in July 2019 after withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission, ending 30 years of so-called exploratory whaling, which has been criticized by conservationists as a cover for commercial hunting banned by the IWC in 1988.

As part of commercial whaling in the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone, Japan took 270 whales last year, less than 80% of the quota and less than it once did in Antarctica and the Pacific Northwest as part of its research program.

While conservation groups have denounced the resumption of commercial whaling, some see it as a way to allow the government’s and costly whaling program to adapt to changing times and tastes.

Demonstrating determination to keep the whaling industry alive for decades to come, Kyodo Senpaku will begin construction on a new 6 billion yen ($46 million) mother ship to be launched next year to replace the aging Nisshin Maru.

But uncertainty remains.

Whaling is losing support in other whaling countries such as Iceland, where whalers have cut catches in recent years amid criticism that commercial hunting is damaging their national image and tourism.

Whales may also be moving away from Japanese shores due to shortages of saury, their staple food, and other fish, possibly due to the impact of climate change, Kubo said.

Whaling in Japan employs only a few hundred people and one operator and has accounted for less than 0.1% of total meat consumption in recent years, according to the Fisheries Agency.

However, conservative ruling lawmakers strongly support commercial whaling and meat consumption as part of Japan’s cultural tradition.

Conservationists say whale meat is no longer part of the daily diet in Japan, especially for the younger generation.

Whale meat was an available source of protein during Japan’s years of malnutrition after World War II, with annual consumption peaking at 233,000 tons in 1962.

The whale was quickly replaced with other meat. Stocks of whale meat fell to 6,000 tons in 1986, a year before the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling that banned the hunting of several species of whales.

In a study of whaling, which has been criticized as a front for commercial hunting because the meat was sold on the market, Japan caught up to 1,200 whales annually. It has since drastically reduced its catch after escalating international protests and plummeting supply and consumption of whale meat in the country.

The annual supply of meat fluctuated in the range of 3000-5000 tons, including imports from Norway and Iceland. In 2019, that number dropped further to 2,000 tons, or 20 grams (less than 1 ounce) of whale meat per person per year, according to Fisheries Agency statistics.

Whaling officials attributed the decline in supply over the past three years to a lack of imports due to the pandemic and plan to nearly double supply this year with imports of more than 2,500 tons from Iceland.

Japan has succeeded in getting Iceland’s only remaining whaling company to hunt whales exclusively for shipment to Japan, whaling officials said. Iceland only caught one minke whale in the 2021 season, according to IWC.

Criticizing Iceland’s exports to Japan, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said it “opposes any commercial whaling as it is inherently cruel”.

Given the uncertain prospects for imports, Kyodo Senpaku wants the government to increase Japan’s annual catch quota to a level that can supply around 5,000 tons, a level Kubo describes as a threshold to sustain the industry.

“Long term, I think it will be difficult to keep the industry at current supply levels,” Kubo said. “We have to increase both demand and supply, which have shrunk.”

He added that with extremely limited supply, whale meat processing may not be a viable business and may not survive for future generations.

Yuki Okoshi, who began serving whale meat dishes at his Japanese-style seafood restaurant three years ago when better quality whale meat became available through commercial whaling, is hopeful whale meat supplies will stabilize.

Okoshi noted the decline in the supply of whale meat in recent years and said that “the future of the whale industry depends on whether customers need us, and perhaps restaurants like us, which are closest to consumers, hold the key to survival.”

“Whaling can be a political issue, but the relationship between the restaurant and our customers is very simple,” Okosi said. We serve good food at reasonable prices and the customers are happy. That’s all”.

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