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The Japanese press is reporting that the Japanese Prime Minister ‘hates whale meat’. He is apparently not alone. Demand for whale meat has fallen dramatically in Japan in recent years; prices have dropped by half, and thousands of tons of meat from its two large whaling programs languish in frozen stockpiles.

Sales of whale meat, blubber and other products in Japan have made a loss of around $223 million over the last 20 years and the government has spent over $164 million dollars in subsidies over the same period to maintain the whaling fleet and other aspects of the failing industry.

Despite not having the stomach for whale meat, the new Japanese Prime Minister unfortunately seems set to continue the policy pursued by his predecessors; propping up an unnecessary, unsustainable and uneconomic industry that has no place in the 21st century.

New research commissioned by WDCS and WWF considers a range of direct and indirect costs associated with whaling and the processing and marketing of whale products such as whale meat. Researchers conclude that these costs, combined with declining demand for whale meat and the risk of negative impacts such as trade or tourism boycotts, make commercial whaling unlikely to produce economic benefits for either country. The findings are revealed in our new report - Sink or Swim : The Economics of Whaling Today.

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