This isn't a new issue, this has been a recurring trend for the past twenty years or so. Even this 2015 article from Wired (archive) talks about it. It's a mix of environmental conscious issues,...
This isn't a new issue, this has been a recurring trend for the past twenty years or so. Even this 2015 article from Wired (archive) talks about it. It's a mix of environmental conscious issues, prices, and better offerings.
Good numbers are hard to come by but A 2006 poll commissioned by Greenpeace and conducted by the independent Nippon Research Centre found that 95 percent of Japanese people very rarely or never eat whale meat. And the amount of uneaten frozen whale meat stockpiled in Japan has doubled to 4,600 tons between 2002 and 2012.
Japan's whaling industry is struggling to stay afloat as government subsidies dwindle and consumers are less interested in what used to be a staple food on Japanese dinner tables.
Why in the hell would the government be subsidizing this industry? I understand them allowing whaling to persist due to cultural pressure, as fucked up as that is. But subsidizing it?
Why in the hell would the government be subsidizing this industry?
I understand them allowing whaling to persist due to cultural pressure, as fucked up as that is. But subsidizing it?
This isn't a new issue, this has been a recurring trend for the past twenty years or so. Even this 2015 article from Wired (archive) talks about it. It's a mix of environmental conscious issues, prices, and better offerings.
Why in the hell would the government be subsidizing this industry?
I understand them allowing whaling to persist due to cultural pressure, as fucked up as that is. But subsidizing it?
Most likely local corruption. It's a lot more common in Japan than it should be
The article details that whaling in Japan was literally enabled by corruption, so you could safely drop the "most likely".