[Whale Tasting Event] First event!
What happens when a group of overseas travel agents try whale meat!?

Delicious! If they don’t tell you anything, it’s beef!

I’ve had them before, but these are exceptionally different! Especially the “OBAKE,” they tasted better than I could have ever imagined!

I am Japanese, but I have never had such a good whale meat.

Without alcohol, I think it is about 7,000-8,000 yen per person.

After 2019, most are within 200 nautical miles and from seas around Japan. However, imported ones are also available. The meat served today, they are from the seas surrounding Japan.

It is available in Tokyo, Shimonoseki, Nagasaki and many other areas. You can find a lot of them by searching on the internet. The most consumed areas are Sendai and Ishinomaki in Tohoku, and Nagasaki and Fukuoka in Kyushu. There are more than 10 good restaurants in Tokyo. There is also an Italian restaurant where you can eat a full course of whale. The price is about 25,000 yen, which is a bit expensive.

Master Chef! Tell me how to eat the dish!

(All laughing)

Really tasty! It’s like wagyu, light wagyu!

Is today’s course popular in Osaka?

The world is too whale-conscious, so I think whale should be one of the meat options, just like chicken!
And I think it’s nice to have one whale dish in a course meal!
I really discovered that whale goes well with sake!

After trying today’s whale course meal, do you think there’s an opportunity to include it in your travel tours?
Also, if you have any suggestions on how to make it better, please let us know.

I agree. Even if I lived in Japan for a long time, I rarely get a chance to experience such a special whale course.
I’ve been taking pictures all day and will try to get them on Facebook and Instagram as soon as possible. And now that many people from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia are coming to Japan, I think if they see the posts, more people will become interested in whales and feel more familiar with them.

The company’s Instagram has 250,000 followers. If I update the topic of dolphins or whales, I can’t post it because I get a lot of very negative responses, mainly from followers in the Western world.

But I think I can propose to people who come to Japan not as a group tour but as an individual gourmet tour, a personal tour with a couple, family, or friends.

When discussing tour content, food is always included if it is a Japan tour. I think it would be easy to introduce this content not only in Tokyo and Kyoto, but also in other parts of Japan.

When it comes to whaling in French newspapers, the only story about whaling is that only Japan and three other countries hunt whales.

The traditional food culture is not mentioned, and today was the first time I heard about whaling’s contribution to the SDGs. The French newspapers and the BBC in the UK only talk about research whaling.

Internationally, are all species of whales banned or are some species okay? They don’t know that either. So I think we have to promote (Japan’s opinion on whales) more.

Let me introduce you to three attractions (benefits) of whale meat that are good for our health.

First. It is healthier than chicken meat, which is said to be low in calories and high in protein.

Second. It is rich in “balenine,” which helps relieve exhaustion, improve immunity, and prevent dementia.

And third. It is also rich in DHA, EPA, and DPA, which are helpful in improving academic performance, preventing arteriosclerosis, and preventing hypertension.

In other words, whale meat is ideal in that it is very healthy compared to other meats, and it prevents aging and helps us to keep good health.

There are two reasons why this high quality whale is only available in Japan.

The first point is quality control before reaching the restaurants and dealers.
We catch the best kind of whales for each season in the best fishing grounds where freshness can be maintained.
We process the whales on board immediately after harvesting.

We are able to manage and deliver marine resources with the world’s best quality in the market.
Japan is the only country in the world that has achieved such a system.

The second point is the chef’s management and cooking know-how built up over a long history.
Whale eating culture has a long history, as whale bones have been excavated from ruins dating back 5,000 years.

In addition, over a long period of time, cooking methods have been developed that suit the characteristics of the parts of the whale.

Of course, this “Murasaki” restaurant has a 70-year history and is one of the best in Japan.

The most expensive is the “tail meat.”
In November 2022, in Shimonoseki, the price was 500,000 yen per kg.

There are two ways to transport it to land: frozen and raw.

There are such a variety of parts and cooking methods for them.
You can see that there are quite a variety of parts, like cattle.

In Japan we take good care of this whale meat and eat it with relish.
We know that there are some people in your country and around the world who may be against the hunting and eating of whales with a high intelligence quotient.

However, from the perspective of the food chain, excessive protection of one creature because it is pitiful can damage the ecosystem.

In fact, the over-protection of whales has resulted in major changes in the oceans surrounding our country, and catches of saury, sardines, and other fish have been drastically reduced.The balance of life in the oceans has been greatly tilted by the overabundance of whales, which feed on saury, sardines, and other sea creatures.
We Japanese consume a variety of foods with gratitude.

Even though whales are delicious, we do not overhunt them, but rather we survey and keep whales within the limits of the catch in order to protect the precious gifts of the sea.Finally, from the perspective of the SDGs, let me tell you a little-known story about whaling and whale eating.

(2) Whaling and whale eating protect the environment on land.

From the perspective of environmental destruction, whale meat is a food that has the potential to deter the desertification of the earth.

In order to produce the meat of cows, pigs, birds, etc. that you eat every day, a lot of grain is needed as food for raising them.

It is said that 25 kg of grain is needed to produce 1 kg of beef. In other words, it takes 10 kg or more of grain production to eat one pound of steak.

Did you know that the amount of farmland used to produce grain for animal feed is currently estimated to be about 1/4 of the earth’s land area, and that deforestation to create this farmland is still ongoing?

On the other hand, whales that grow in the natural ecosystem do not need to be bred, and therefore do not require feed.
The amount of meat from one whale is said to be 7.2 tons, while the same amount of beef would require 180 tons of grain and the farmland to produce it.

In other words, the spread of whale meat around the world will make a significant contribution to the SDGs.

My impression has changed.
I did not know that whaling contributes to the SDGs.
I did not know that regular meat requires a large amount of grain.
If possible, I wanted people in the U.S. to know these facts and then be willing to eat it.

It was my first time to try whale cuisine and my first time to hear about whaling and the SDGs. I had a lot of great food, and I would like to give back by sending out lots of messages.

The whale sushi I had before was actually not good.Again, there were things I liked and things I didn’t like, but in total, this course was really good!
Also, even without data, I think the analogy of gibier (wild game meat) would go over well with Europeans.
After that, I think it would be good to have data on what kind of whales should be caught and how many whales are enough to avoid disturbing the whale ecosystem.
I enjoyed the different tastes and thought I could introduce it to the tour as it was my first experience of the taste.

Greenpeace and others are sending out messages around the world like Japan is overfishing.
I thought Japan should do more PR about the fact that whaling is done only in the seas around Japan.