Honor culture and let them eat whale

By Yoshie Okabe

The international community has banned catching whales because the impending crisis of possible whale extinction.

However, the international fishing agreements that have banned whaling have caused damage to the Japanese lifestyle. For example, some people maintain their livelihood through hunting whales.

Around the southeastern regions of Japan such as the Kii Peninsula, people pray whales will come so the people can prosper in their lives.

However, Westerners do not understand the significance of eating whales because of their different cultural backgrounds.

Many Japanese tend to live on fish, the fishing industry is a big employer. However, because of hard work and low wages, the fishing industry in Japan is suffering from the lack of laborers. If the fishing industry could catch whales, they would provide for the fisherman’s family with increasing laborer’s incomes because whale meat can be sold for a good profit.

Also, catching whales would encourage the employee’s morale to continue in the fishing community owing to their feelings of empowerment generated by the good fortune of catching a whale.

Another reason why Japanese people need to catch whales lies in the mythological ideas of Japan, the whales are considered merely animals in most countries—nothing special—but in Japan, the whale is considered sacred.

Until the 20th century, Japanese fishermen used to catch whales using only a small ship. However, because of the huge size of the mammals, fishermen considered the whale as Ebisu, a sea god similar to Triton in Greek mythology.

However, in Japanese mythology Kojiki, God established a new world with affluent prosperity. The whale has contained some of this godly essence. The heavenly gods put the whale on earth for humans to eat the whale’s flesh in order to assure oceanic prosperity. In fact, in some fishing villages in the Kii Peninsula, whale festivals are held.

Finally, catching whales brings respect for those fishermen who have died while on duty. The instability of the small ship rocked in the turbulent surf was life threatening to fishermen, and many would die on fishing trips. The death of a fisherman used to be seen as bringing future’s prosperity to the fishing community through the sacrifice of the fisherman’s life during work..

Japanese tradition in the Kii Peninsula says that if the whale is not caught, the men who have died will continue to chase the whale for all eternity.

Therefore, their souls will be destined to wander in this world without going to heaven. In addition, because of their not going to the heaven, the men who have died will cause increased misfortune for current fishermen.

By eating the flesh of whales, some fishermen believe that the souls of the dead will rest peacefully. Therefore, Japanese people, especially those residing in the Kii Peninsula, eat the whales.

Whale flesh provides spiritual morale for fishermen through high wages and is considered as Ebisu, one of the sea gods in Japanese mythology.

Furthermore, in order to ensure that the fishermen who have died while on duty will rest peacefully, we need to serve whale flesh. When Japanese hunt and eat the whales, public morale within the fishing community is enhanced.

International bans of whaling violates the culture and religion of the Japanese people.

— Yoshie Okabe is a Japanese international student majoring in agricultural education. Responses to this column can be sent to collegian@csufresno.edu