Meat of whale caught in commercial program arrives at Toyosu

July 8, 2019

Tokyo--Meat from a whale caught in Japan's first commercial whaling in 31 years arrived at the Toyosu wholesale food market in Tokyo on Monday morning.

Japan resumed commercial whaling on July 1, following its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission, which bans such operations, on June 30.

Put up for auction at Toyosu were some 260 kilograms of meat from a minke whale, including red meat that can be eaten raw, such as for sashimi, and rare tail meat. The whale was captured off Kushiro in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido and divided up on Thursday.

Some of the red meat fetched prices as high as about 4,000 yen per kilogram, higher than those for meat from whales caught in the country's research whaling operations, thanks to its good quality and rarity.

"It's fatty, and the quality is fantastic," an auction participant said.

A wholesale company official said: "The auctions were vigorous. Red meat was auctioned at prices around 30 pct higher than those for the meat of whales caught in the past research program."

Meat from minke and other whales to be captured in the resumed commercial whaling operations is seen continuing to arrive at the Toyosu market.

An official of an intermediary wholesaler that sells fish and other marine products to restaurants said, "We hope to promote the consumption of whale meat as much as we can, as many people now don't know its taste." Jiji Press