Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 438, From the Deep, Part 1.

Today, it's time to tackle a long-requested topic that I have shied away from in the past

for lack of familiarity, but it's one of the areas where Japan tends to get some generally

not very positive international attention, and therefore worth taking some time to talk about.

Today it's time to talk about the history of whaling in Japan.

Now, I should say up front, this is going to be a series focused on the evolution of whaling in Japan.

We are not really going to unpack the ethics of whaling as an industry or anything along those lines.

My goal instead is to explain where whaling as a practice came from in Japan and how it has evolved over the centuries.

Personally, I will say that whaling is something I oppose,

and have ever since seeing Star Trek 4, the where they save the whales as a young boy.

Given that adjusted for inflation, it is the fifth highest grossing out of 13 Star Trek movies.

I imagine I am not the only one who feels that way.

I mention this only to head off objections about subtly trying to interject my views into the history,

by being upfront about what my views are.

As always, you can and should decide what you think.

So with that said, let's talk about whales.

First, evidence for whaling as an industry or a regular practice in Japan is pretty scant before the 1500s.

That's not to say that people did not consume whale before that time, but generally from the

records we have, whale harvesting or hunting seems to have been more opportunistic, going after

injured or beached animals rather than actively hunting healthy ones.

The first attempts to go beyond this into what we might somewhat controversially call

commercial whale hunting crop up in the 1570s when sailors from Morozoaki, a small fishing

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