Whaling is one of the perpetuating environmental controversies that has sharply divided perceptions and allegiances on a global scale. Despite the international moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan remains one of the few nations that continues to hunt and consume whales for food under the name of “scientific research.”  Yet, with today’s limited supply, whale meat has ceased to be a common diet for Japanese consumers; rather it has been transformed into a luxurious delicacy mainly served in expensive restaurants, department stores, or souvenir shops for local tourism. This paper explores the intersection of nationalism and commodity fetishism, tracing how the whaling industry capitalizes on material scarcity by enhancing symbolic and economic values of whale meat as an “exotic traditional food.” On one level, whale meat has become a totemic item of inclusivity, which signifies the collective identity of Japaneseness. On another level, it has become an exclusive item of distinction, whose rarity appeals to the nostalgia, culinary curiosity and connoisseurship of consumers. This double ordering simultaneously activates identification and desire, and, thereby, promotes the imagination of whale meat as a cherished “traditional” food in Japan. Drawing on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork conducted at Kyodo Senpaku, the Tokyo-based whaling company that conducts Japan’s scientific whaling, I argue that one needs to pay more attention to market-oriented nationalism than government-sponsored nationalism in order to understand the complex channels of pro-whaling sentiments in Japan.     

Keywords: Whaling, Food, Environmental Politics, Animal Conservation

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Fumitaka Wakamatsu is a program-specific lecturer at Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies at the Kyoto University. His research focuses on the issues of food, identity, and politics concerning the global controversy over Japanese whaling.