Japanese company sells whale meat snacks in vending machines

The whaling industry is up against changing tastes, a growing awareness of animal welfare, and dwindling government subsidies. Photo / AP

A Japanese company hoping to boost the trade in whale meat has started selling it in vending machines.

Kyodo Senpaku Co, a major whaling company based in Tokyo, hopes to open machines selling whale meat and processed whale products at about 100 locations over the next five years.

It has already started operating machines selling frozen red whale meat for sashimi and rare steaks, and tinned whale at one location in the capital since late last month. Single items can cost up to ¥3000 (almost $36).

“Unless domestic consumption increases, the traditional whaling industry won’t survive and (elements of) Japan’s unique dietary culture will be lost,” a representative of Kyodo Senpaku was quoted as saying by The Japan Times.

By mid-February, the company is slated to open three more “Whale Store” vending machine locations - in Tokyo and Japan’s second- and third-largest cities, Yokohama and Osaka - in a bid to encourage more people to consume whale meat.

The industry is up against changing tastes, a growing awareness of animal welfare, and dwindling government subsidies.

Activists have slammed the vending machines as a “cynical sales ploy”.

“Only a small but influential group of politicians and whaling industry stakeholders drive the country’s whaling interests,” campaigner Astrid Fuchs, of the charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said in a statement last week.

The charity says whale hunting is cruel, “with many whales taking a long time to die after being shot with grenade-tipped harpoons that are often fired inaccurately from constantly moving ships”.

Whale meat was widely eaten in Japan after World War II, during a time of food shortages. In 1962, sales peaked at 223,000 tonnes, outstripping those of beef and chicken. But by 1986, sales of whale meat had fallen to 6000 tonnes, and a year later the International Whaling Commission declared a moratorium on commercial whale hunting.

Japan continued to hunt whales in the name of research, although meat from the hunts was still sold on the market. In 2019, Japan resumed commercial whaling to the condemnation of conservation groups.