Umm.. you sure about that? I heard (second had mind you but from a reliable source) that apparently whaling in Japan has only been a big thing since WWII when there was fuck all food around but there's an awful lot on a whale so that's when they really started eating it. Not that much of an "old tradition" then and one brought about by despertion. I also heard (at the same time) that apparently the vast majority of the Japanese population doesn't really like whale meat and they have hard time selling it to the public, there's large stocks in storage cos they can't get rid of it, and so are now trying to sell it to schools.