Clip description
At the Tokyo Fish Market, whale meat sells for US$330 per kilo. If the whale meat is unavailable will they buy more tuna and shark? Japanese people feel that the world’s media is attacking them for their choice to eat whale.
Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG
At the Tokyo Fish Market, whale meat sells for US$330 per kilo. If the whale meat is unavailable will they buy more tuna and shark? Japanese people feel that the world’s media is attacking them for their choice to eat whale.
This clip shows images of Tokyo as the narrator (Jack Thompson) informs us that Japan’s large population relies heavily on seafood. Inside the Tokyo Fish Market, whale meat is sold for up to US$350 per kg. The president of the World Wildlife Fund, USA, argues that the cost of the meat indicates that it is not a survival food. Footage inside a Japanese restaurant shows whale meat being prepared and served to diners. A Japanese businessman insists that eating whale is a 'need of life’. A Japanese academic criticises the way Japanese mass media misrepresents the complex issues of the whale debate; a young Japanese commuter wants the anti-whaling countries to meet Japan halfway on the issue of whale conservation.
This clip starts approximately 12 minutes into the documentary.
A montage of shots of Tokyo restaurants and the local fish market as Jack Thompson narrates the sequence.
Narrator With a population of more than 120 million people, Japan relies heavily on the world’s oceans as a major food supply. In the Tokyo Fish Market, whale meat sells for up to US$350 a kilo.
Kathryn Fuller, World Wildlife Fund president- USA, speaks to camera.
Kathryn Fuller When you look at commercial whaling, you see that it is driven by commercial interests who are providing meat not for local communities but for sushi bars and fancy restaurants in cities like Tokyo.
Man (subtitled) This is not sentimental. This is not cultural. This is a need of life. It’s a, uh – we, we eat them, we feed on them, and if we quit it, then next the story must be tuna and shark.
A man yells in Japaense at a fish market.
Man 2 I think what Japan is afraid of is if they lose the whaling issue and have to stop whaling, they’ll have to stop a lot of forms of fishing. But the answer is, of course they have to stop a lot of forms of fishing because they’re so incredibly destructive that if they don’t, they’ll lose the resource itself. They don’t seem to care about that. But that’s incredibly important.
Dr Hideo Obara (Nagawa Nutrition University, through interpreter) Japanese mass media have not been fair in their reporting of the whale debate and other issues concerning the environment. They merely broadcasted that European countries and the United States are attacking Japan for emotional reasons. The media have created a false image to the Japanese people, that the whaling issue is just another method of Japanese bashing. I think this is causing a lot of problems for Japan.
Man 3 (interviewed on a train through an interpreter) At the moment, everybody is attacking Japan and it is becoming rather extreme. I’d like to ask people who are against whaling to understand Japan’s circumstances. And we need to meet somewhere in the middle.
Man 4 (interviewed in a train subway through an interpreter) I have the experience to eat the whale’s meat. I like it.
Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Japan's taste for whale from the documentary The Last Whale as a high quality video download.
australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.
All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.
When you access australianscreen you agree that:
All other rights reserved.
ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.
This clip is available in the following configurations:
File name | Size | Quality | Suitability |
---|---|---|---|
lastwhal1_pr.mp4 | Large: 21.8MB | High | Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer. |
lastwhal1_bb.mp4 | Medium: 10.3MB | Medium | Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods. |
Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.
Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.
australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.
All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.
When you access australianscreen you agree that:
All other rights reserved.
ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.
Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: