Oishinbo - Vol. 13 Ch. 112 - The War for Whaling (Part 1)

[MangaDex]

 

[deenzfan12]

I don't agree with either side here lol
I think cultures of plenty need to let go of certain foods once sourcing them reaches the point of environmental detriment but at the same time "oh these animals are so smart" is a woowoo reason to not eat something.
Thanks for the scanlation as always!

Edit:
Oh my god I just noticed that Kariya dedicated 5 chapters to this LOL I see he feels strongly about the subject...

 

[Babymech2]

I don't agree with either side here lol
I think cultures of plenty need to let go of certain foods once sourcing them reaches the point of environmental detriment but at the same time "oh these animals are so smart" is a woowoo reason to not eat something.

I think 'oh these are animals are so smart' is mostly Kariya strawmanning by picking the goofiest arguments he can think of and making all environmental concerns seem like fringe lunacy... Luckily this manga is still great even if you disagree with it - I think I would hate, or be really unimpressed with, a lot of the delicacies championed by Yamaoka, but it's always fun to read about them.

(When I visited Iceland we tried a luxury sushi restaurant; after the meal they made us guess what the final dish was and then giggled like naughty children and told us it was illegally caught whale... our reaction was more 'that's a bummer, it wasn't exactly special enough that it was worth that.')

 

[Mugiwara325]

Strawmanning is exactly what I think Kariya is doing with this arc. Having read through so many documents for the Gourmet Notes' research, I have to admit, I do see a point to the Japanese desire for whaling (it's a bit more nuanced than that), but the points that Kariya decided to attack are kind of...poor. Non-indicative of what actual anti-whaling activists usually espouse.

As I see it, while Japan has done some fairly suspect things with regards to research whaling, the animosity they've received is both targeted and disproportionate. Several surveys have been done throughout the years that show many Japanese don't even eat whale meat in modern times, but most of them are displeased with how other nations are dictating how much whaling they can do. This phenomenon has been described as 'anti-anti-whaling', and seems to be more a reaction by the Japanese people to their perceived liberties and culture being controlled by outside forces.

Japan is no longer a member of the IWC as of 2019, and they've resumed controlled whaling in their waters. Despite this, whale numbers appear to be stable, so I can believe they know what they're doing.

I'm not putting that in the Gourmet Notes since that's just me thinking out loud.