I have the honor to assume the post of the Chairman of the Group to Preserve Whale Dietary Culture, succeeding Mr. Shotaro Akiyama who passed away in January this year. I am teaching food culture studies at Tokyo University of Agriculture. As Japan is an island country surrounded by the seas, it has seen the development of a unique fish dietary culture that has not been seen in any other parts of the world. The Japanese are rice-cultivating people, but more than that, they are fish-eating people. Here fish include the whale, and we are proud of being the people who historically loved and cherished the whale most of all nations. In any period of our history, we have revered and paid gratitude to the whale and have been strengthened by the benefit of valuable protein provided by the whale. The evidence that Japan cared about whales more than any anti-whaling country in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) can be witnessed in the fact that temples and shrines have been built near whaling ports in various parts of Japan as a token of respect and gratitude to the whale. It is no exaggeration to say that the blood of the whale has flown in each Japanese person who has consumed whale as important gift from the sea.

  This whale culture, especially the whale dietary culture, which is filled with tradition, is now facing the risk of being driven to extinction by illogical sophistry of anti-whaling countries. This is sheerly an unacceptable situation. To date, Japan has been carrying out cautious scientific research on whales under the IWC Scientific Committee, and conclusions have been drawn that the continuation of the whaling culture in Japan can be fully guaranteed. However, anti-whaling groups try not to recognize these findings.

  As I was appointed the head of the Group to Preserve Whale Dietary Culture, I am committed to appeal our reasonable position not only overseas but also widely among the Japanese people. I call it an offensive drive in defense of whaling dietary culture. I am thinking of mobilizing the mass media and targeting women and children to gain understanding and cooperation for promoting the cause of maintaining our whaling culture. I am considering promoting the education of young people on the importance of whale dietary culture through educational programs at elementary and middle school levels.

  On the occasion of assuming the chairmanship of the Group, I would like to introduce the full text of my article carried in the "My Viewpoint" column of the July 17 issue of the Yomiuri Newspaper.

  The original intent of the establishment of the International Whaling Commission was to research the whale resources scientifically to ensure proper utilization of the resources, to select the whales species that can be harvested and to determine catch quotas. For this purpose, the IWC commissioned its Scientific Committee to carry out scientific research. Over a long span of time, the Scientific Committee has conducted highly accurate research and analysis of the whale resources, and finally came up with a management procedure that can ensure utilization while allowing the resources to increase. The Committee recommended annual quotas to the Commission.
  However, despite the progress in scientific research, anti-whaling countries, such as the United States, France and Australia, strengthened their political move behind the scene, and attempted to divert the original purpose of the scientific activities, ramming through the adoption of a commercial whaling moratorium. Since then, confrontation between whaling and anti-whaling members emerged, as repeatedly observed in the IWC annual meetings.
  At the latest annual meeting in Berlin this past June, the whaling countries' request for the resumption of commercial whaling was refused by a seemingly violent exercise of unilateral forces by the anti-whaling bloc. On top of that, a resolution designed to turn the IWC into an anti-whaling organization was adopted. In other words, the original objective of the IWC to ensure "proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry" (preamble to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling) was transformed into "conservation of whales" alone. Furthermore, the anti-whaling forces strengthened their protective stance by establishing the "Conservation Committee" to expedite their protectionist programs.
  Thus, the anti-whaling countries acted recklessly to radically change the nature of the IWC. Their only reason is the "protection of whales." What we see there is a unilateral denial of science, without any theoretical backing. One cannot but feel futility when considering the continuous research and studies of the Scientific Committee's efforts so far.

  Whaling nations, Japan being one, have their own traditional whale cultures and surrounding dietary cultures. Do the anti-whaling nations really have the right or the authority to drive that culture into extinction with the power of numbers? The anti-whaling countries blatantly disregard the basic objectives of the Convention advocating both the conservation and utilization of whale resources and deny lending their ears to the position of whaling nations. We should not overlook here that among the anti-whaling countries that voted affirmatively at the Berlin meeting for establishment of the Conservation Committee (versus 20 against), there are countries that have had no whale culture. Is this a true form of democracy? It seems to me that it is nothing but a kind of fascism.
  It is shown scientifically that there exist about 760,000 minke whales in the Antarctic, and if those stocks are properly managed and conserved, commercial harvesting can be fully guaranteed, with no negative effect on their conservation. This conclusion of scientific research was totally disregarded by the outlandish tyranny of the majority.
  It is a curious fact that the United States, which stands at the forefront of the anti-whaling campaign, is itself a whaling country. The U.S. government allows its Alaskan indigenous people to catch a 5-year quota of 280 bowhead whales under the name of subsistence whaling. Scientific surveys show that the bowhead whale is the most endangered species. It is this species that should be protected.
  If whales are indispensable as food for native Americans, then the use of Antarctic minke whales, guaranteed as exploitable as a result of scientific research, is more compatible with "proper utilization and orderly whaling."
  Some scientific surveys show that cetaceans consume fish in the amount of 3-7 times the human consumption annually, and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other fisheries management bodies warn against excessive protection of whales. If we leave the whales to increase simply because they are lovable animals, the marine ecosystem may be doomed to change. In order to cope with global food shortage, anticipated to occur not in the too long distance, the Japanese people should fully recognize the importance of whaling for the supply of food.