Japan's research whaling now facing problems at home

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http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200802090083.html

 

Japan's research whaling now facing problems at home

02/09/2008

 

BY KENJI OYAMADA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

 

Japan's research whaling has long been criticized from

around the world as commercial whaling in disguise.

Now, research whaling faces a domestic blow--stagnant

sales of whale meat.

 

A series of accidents involving whaling ships last

year and disruptive protests from overseas activists

have also hurt the finances of a government-affiliated

foundation in charge of research whaling.

 

The problems have become so big that the Institute of

Cetacean Research, an outside body of the Ministry of

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is struggling to

pay back its interest-free loans to the government.

 

The institute received a total of 3.6 billion yen in

interest-free operational loans from another

government affiliate, the Overseas Fishery Cooperation

Foundation, in fiscal 2006.

 

The International Whaling Commission banned commercial

whaling in 1986, but the whaling convention allows

Japan to catch whales for scientific research.

 

According to the foundation's settlement of accounts

for fiscal 2006, it failed to pay back about 1 billion

yen of the loan package.

 

The institute had planned to repay all of its debts by

the end of July last year, but the government allowed

it to repay the loans in installments over four years

from fiscal 2007.

 

The institute first received a public loan package of

1.2 billion yen in its fiscal 2001 accounting year

when the quantity of whale catches increased. It

supplied 2,450 tons of whale meat to the domestic

market in fiscal 2000 and 2,620 tons the following

year.

 

The amount supplied to the market gradually increased

to a high of 5,560 tons in fiscal 2005, and the annual

amount of loans correspondingly rose to 3.6 billion

yen in fiscal 2005 and 2006.

 

Aiming to strengthen " ecological research, " the

institute increased the research whaling quota to 850

catches in the season covering 2005 and 2006, compared

with 440 in the previous season.

 

The amount of whale meat supplied to the market jumped

by 30 percent over the same period, and the institute,

which does not aim to make a profit, cut the price of

whale meat by 20 percent.

 

The lower price, however, reduced revenue from whale

meat by 6 percent, institute officials said.

Meanwhile, the cost of whaling rose by 10 percent

because the institute increased the number of whaling

vessels from five to six to meet the higher quota.

 

One institute official acknowledged that the

20-percent price cut was " too much " when operational

expenses are taken into account.

 

In the institute's settlement of accounts for fiscal

2006, it posted a loss of 700 million yen. It also did

not provide reserve payments to the government that

had previously amounted to tens of millions of yen

annually.

 

Officials of the institute and the fisheries ministry

said a fire and other accidents involving whaling

vessels last fiscal year contributed largely to the

loss. They said the institute should be able to

balance its budget this fiscal year.

 

Escalating protests by activists against Japanese

whaling vessels forced them to suspend operations in

January.

 

While whaling resumed soon afterward, further protests

by activists could suspend operations anew. If that

happens, the supply of whale meat may be reduced,

further hurting the institute's budget.

 

The Tokyo-based research whaling company Kyodo Senpaku

was formed in 1987 by consolidating whaling

departments of Japanese fisheries companies. Due to

the global protest against whaling and waning

profitability, three major fisheries companies

withdrew from Kyodo Senpaku's operation in 2006.

 

The company became a publicly supported whaling

monopoly, whose purpose is to maintain Japan's whaling

tradition.

 

Kyodo Senpaku is a for-profit company that collects,

processes and sells wholesale whale specimens on

behalf of the research institute.

 

In the year that ended in October 2007, Kyodo Senpaku

recorded sales of 6 billion yen with a net profit of 5

million yen.

 

Most of the revenue came from commission fees on sales

of whale meat to wholesale markets and charter fees of

its whaling vessels paid by the institute.

 

One problem facing the company is its difficulty in

recruiting young workers willing to stay long enough

to learn whaling skills.

 

In addition, the long and distant voyages are a

turn-off for young people, company officials said.

 

Critics have questioned the government's policy of

maintaining the country's whaling tradition at any

cost when it faces a huge financial deficit and other

problems.(IHT/Asahi: February 9,2008)