Japan News Roundup

“I guess I do feel sorry for the whales,” said Shun Ishimura, 7, shyly fiddling with his L.A. Dodgers T-shirt. Like many of the children, he was tasting whale flesh for the first time. He said that despite his feelings, he “ate it anyway because it looked so good. And when I ate it, I liked it. Whale is really delicious.“

Thank you, Washington Post! Could you make Japan sound any more cruel? Why not tell the world they eat the beating hearts of their enemies while you’re at it!

This whole whale thing: Japan’s whalers kill several hundred animals a year. When the film Chicken Run came out, the animated chickens were used in a Burger King advertisement where they held signs that said “Save the Chickens – eat a Whopper!” A PETA spokesman said this was actually a good thing—less per capita pain and suffering was caused by killing cows (one cow equals many burgers, but a basket of chicken wings comes from… lots of chickens). Should not the same logic apply to whales? You are getting one helluva lot of meat from one animal.

Seriously, why the fuss? We don’t give a damn about the millions of chickens, pigs, and cows killed every year, not to mention the people killed by war, starvation, AIDS, cancer, whatever. As long as they whale population has recovered—and it appears it has—why not allow commercial whaling? Japan says it’s cultural imperialism, and aren’t they right? If India was the world’s superpower, we’d all be criticized for eating beef. And Joe and I agree with Ishimura—whale meat is delicious.

[And for what it’s worth, look at what school district is pushing whale meat!]

Also, Koizumi is holding talks today with President Roh of the ROK. Perhaps the two can discuss this outrage. (Savages.)

Here’s another great story to begin my Monday with: Tokyo is world’s most expensive city, says study.