>>417
｜立教大学兼任講師の佐久間淳子氏は、皮肉にもシーシェパードの活動が、日本の文化は間違っているという西洋人からのメッセージと日本人には感じられ、捕鯨支持を増加させたと述べる。
｜同氏が行った調査では70％の日本人が捕鯨に賛成で、この数字は日本人のプライドを示すものだと説明している（同上）。

2019.04.17 米公共ラジオ放送PRI
In Japan, few people eat whale meat anymore, but whaling remains popular
https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-04-17/japan-few-people-eat-whale-meat-anymore-whaling-remains-popular

Under international rules, Japan can hunt whales that aren’t endangered for scientific research, but the meat is sold commercially and there’s a huge surplus of it stored frozen in warehouses across the country.
In January, the stockpile reached 3,700 tons, according to Junko Sakuma, a researcher at Rikkyo University.
The meat still sometimes shows up in school lunches, and the whaling industry has tried to boost consumer demand with nostalgic ads aimed at older people; however, it hasn’t had much impact.
There’s something else going on here, though. Sakuma, the Rikkyo University researcher, says when Japan originally designed its research program back in the 1980s,
it was required to tell the commission ahead of time how many whales it would catch.
“Japan would go to the International Whaling Commission with a long-term target, like they’d say they’d catch a hundred whales a year.
But because it’s supposedly for research, they couldn’t reduce the number of whales they caught, even if consumption declined.”
When Japan resumes commercial whaling, it’s actually expected to kill fewer whales.
And in fact, the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd called it a positive development.
The group’s boats frequently tried to stop Japan’s whale hunts, and Sakuma says that may have had an unintended effect.
“The ironic thing is that Sea Shepherd’s activities actually seem to increase Japanese support for whaling. There’s this feeling about them like, ‘Here are these Westerners coming to Japan and telling us our culture is wrong.’”
In a survey, Sakuma found that 70% of Japanese are pro-whaling; it’s a point of national pride.
When Japan announced it would leave the international commission, Sakuma says politicians were all over the news hailing it as a victory for whaling culture.