The Japanese claim killing whales is a cultural thing, so should that be good enough for them to continue?

If it's a cultural thing then they should be allowed to hunt them ONLY in the traditional way; no steam driven harpoons, no radars/sonars, not even a motor.

majority of japanese today here don't eat whale.

i am living here.

many of them never even try it.

who ever say that it is a part of their diet, they lie. and that is what they always do. lie !

it is not like we kill cows for beef, they can not even finish it each year, the whale diet is so un-popular for japanese today, they have to make it dog food. and we can not farm whale like we do with the cow. how can it be the same?

if you want to kill for culture, then use your original cultural way hunting it. do you have a ball?

and this is not "condemn a culture for a relatively small thing"

first huntting whale by modern method can not call as a way to preserve your cultural, your great great grandpa got this big ship big cannon to hunt the whale?

next, it is a 1000 whales we are talking about, and it is only this year. yeah you think it small? kill 1000 japanese and say it again!

Hi Mate,

I can see their need to hunt whales. It would be like taking beef off our menu's if we were to prohibit them from making a catch. BUTTTTT !!! Lets regulate their catch and provide an Honest and open record of their activities. Going under cover with some B---S--t excuse does nothing for their reputation. Regulation is the Best way to control this thing called Scientific Research. Make them be Honest in their cull. It is the only way it can continue.

Some cultural traditions are good to maintain; others are not. And with whales decimated from centuries of whaling, it would be good for them to stop and find another outlet of some kind. Just because something has been a long-standing tradition in a given culture does not make it acceptable. Look at slavery, for instance.

There is no history to it, there is no cultural basis for it. This is described by the Japanese as scientific, yet have offered the international comunity absolutely no evidence and results to prove this is so.

Shame on the Japanese government and those in Japan who support this barbaric activity by eating whale meat.

It is also part of Japanese culture to commit Harri Kari but that has changed and imagine the outcry if the American Indians started hunting buffalo's again for food and pelts that is part of their culture.

If they want to hunt whales it should be solely in Japanese waters.

You make a good point, but it is directed at the wrong people. You need to inform the Japanese. I'm one of the people who defend Japan's choice to kill a number of whales for their food. What I mostly object to are a bunch of middle-to-upper middle-class people here in the US condemning the Japanese because OUR position is different. People don't think outside of their own culture enough (well, like the muslims, as example) and to condemn a culture for a relatively small thing based solely on the sensitivity of another culture is beyond incomprehensible to me.

no. like in many countries if not all murder is illeagal, which is why people cant use the excuse that its apart of their religon to use huam sacraficre