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In
Kushiro, just 160 kilometers south of Rausu, where the four
dozen people laughed and cheered, boats were setting off on
Japan's first commercial whale hunt in 31 years.
Killed that day were two minke whales, which the boats in Rausu
also search for glimpses of - a situation that whale-watching
boat captain Masato Hasegawa confessed had him worried.
"They won't come into this area - it's a national park - or
there'd be big trouble," the 57-year-old former pollock
fisherman said. "And the whales we saw today, the sperm whales
and orcas, aren't things they hunt."
"But we also watch minkes," he added. "If they take a lot in the
(nearby) Sea of Okhotsk, we could well see a change, and that
would be too bad for whale watching."
Whale-watching is a growing business around Japan, with popular
spots from the southern Okinawa islands up to Rausu, a fishing
village on the island of Hokkaido, so far north that it's closer
to Russia than to Tokyo.
The number of whale watchers around Japan has more than doubled
between 1998 and 2015, the latest year for which national data
is available. One company in Okinawa had 18,000 customers
between January and March this year.
In Rausu, 33,451 people packed tour boats last year for whale
and bird watching, up 2,000 from 2017 and more than 9,000 higher
than 2016. Many stay in local hotels, eat in local restaurants,
and buy local products such as sea urchins and seaweed.
"Of the tourist boat business, 65 percent is whale watching,"
said Ikuyo Wakabayashi, executive director of the Shiretoko
Rausu Tourism Association, who says the numbers grow
substantially each year.
"You don't just see one type of whale here, you see lots of
them," she said. "Whale-watching is a huge tourist resource for
Rausu and this will continue, I hope."
Wakabayashi was drawn to Rausu by whale-watching; a native of
the western city of Osaka, she fell in love with the area after
three trips there to see orcas.
"I thought this was an incredible place," she said. "Winters are
tough, but it's so beautiful."
Hasegawa, who says he has a waiting list of customers in high
season, has ordered a second boat.
"Right now, the lifestyle we have is good," Hasegawa said.
"Better than it would have been with fishing."
SMALL INDUSTRY
The five whaling vessels moored at Kushiro port on Sunday, the
night before the hunt resumed, were well-used and
well-maintained. Crew members came and went, carrying groceries
or towels, heading for a public bath.
Barely 300 people are directly involved with whaling around
Japan, and though the government maintains whale meat is an
important part of food culture, the amount consumed annually has
fallen to only 0.1 percent of total meat consumption.
Yet Japan, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - himself from a
whaling district - left the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
and returned to commercial whaling on July 1.
Whaling advocates, such as Yoshifumi Kai, head of the Japan
Small-type Whaling Association, celebrated the hunt.
"We endured for 31 years, but now it's all worth it," he said in
Kushiro on Monday night after the first minkes were brought in
to be butchered. "They'll be whaling for a week here, we may
have more."
Everybody acknowledges that rebuilding demand could be tough
after decades of whale being a pricey, hard-to-find food.
Consumption was widespread after World War Two, when an
impoverished Japan needed cheap protein, but fell off after the
early 1960s as other meat grew cheaper.
"Japan has so much to eat now that food is thrown out, so we
don't expect demand for whale will rise that fast," said Kazuo
Yamamura, president of the Japan Whaling Association.
"But looking to the future, if you don't eat whale, you forget
that it's a food," he said. "If you eat it in school lunches,
you'll remember that, you'll remember that it's good."
Pro-whaling lawmaker Kiyoshi Ejima said that subsidies were
unlikely, but that the government should be careful not to let
the industry founder. About 5.1 billion yen ($47.31 million) was
budgeted for whaling in 2019.
"If we pull away our hands too soon, a lot of companies will
fail," he added.
The goal of selling whale throughout Japan may be impractical,
said Joji Morishita, Japan's former IWC commissioner.
"The alternative ... is to just limit the supply of whale meat
to some of the major places in Japan that have a good tradition
of whale eating," Morishita said, adding that the meat is
difficult to thaw and cook.
In areas for which whaling is a tradition, this niche market
could promote tourism, which Abe has made a pillar of his
economic plan.
"Whale eating in a sense is ideal - it's different, it's
well-known, and for better or worse, it's very famous,"
Morishita said. "Taking advantage of this IWC withdrawal, I
think there are business chances that are viable."
WHALES UP CLOSE
For Rausu, on Hokkaido's remote Shiretoko Peninsula, the viable
business is whale watching.
Foxes run through the streets of the city's downtown, which
clings to a narrow strip of land below mountains and faces the
Nemuro Strait. Summer often brings thick fog, while winter
storms can leave waist-high drifts.
Though fishing was long Rausu's economic backbone, the industry
has taken a hit from declining fish stocks, which locals blame
on Russian trawlers and falling prices. The population has
dropped by several hundred annually, slipping below 5,000 this
year.
Hasegawa, a fourth-generation fisherman, began his tour boat
business in 2006. Though the first few years were a struggle, he
is now happy with his choice as Rausu's reputation grows
globally.
On a recent weekday, customers packed the parking lot at a wharf
lined with squid-fishing boats, waiting to board Hasegawa's boat
and those of three other companies. Hasegawa's customers came
from all over Japan and several foreign countries.
"Today there were more (whale) jumps than usual; it was
fantastic," said Kiyoko Ogi, a 47-year-old Tokyo bus driver
who's been whale-watching in Rausu three times. "I'm really
opposed to commercial whaling; seeing whales close is so
exciting."
Whale hunting was never big in Rausu, and though Hasegawa said
there once was "trouble" with people hunting small Baird's
beaked whales nearby, those fishermen now stay far from the
tours and will tell him where to find orcas and sperm whales.
But he's dubious about whether demand for whale meat will ever
pick up. Restaurants and hotels in Rausu avoid serving it.
"We get a lot of kids in summer vacations. If you tell them on
the boat that 'this is the whale we ate last night,' they'd
cry," he said.
"If they serve whale, nobody from overseas will come, especially
Europeans," he added. "Given that the national government is
trying to woo overseas tourists so much, its thinking (on
whaling) seems a bit wrong."
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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