J

apanese love the underdog, and there’s no bigger underdog to love than the country itself. This year Japan’s achievements on the world sports stage have given folks a lot to celebrate, from Shizuka Arakawa’s figure skating gold medal in Torino this past February to Japan’s winning of the inaugural World Baseball Championship in March. However, sports is not the only arena in which Japan’s love of the underdog manifests itself, and nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in two political “victories” achieved last month, both related to what Japan eats.

At last month’s International Whaling Commission meeting on St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Japan was able to persuade – some say buy off -- enough fence-sitting countries to slimly pass a "declaration" stating that IWC's whaling moratorium was "no longer necessary." It was a symbolic victory, having no immediate effect other than to perhaps soothe the wounds of a country that likes to view itself as the victim of a Western environmental bias that has no respect for Japanese cultural traditions. That's the way the story is spun, at any rate. But as there is no real popular wellspring of sentiment within Japan to bring back whaling, or to eat whale meat, save for a few "whaling communities", you have to wonder why Japan is spending so much energy -- and money -- bribing countries and turning oneself into a pariah of the international community that in another breath it so desperately wants to be a part of.

In the same week as the whaling vote, Japan agreed to resume the import of US beef after effectively banning the product for the last two-and-a-half years, ostensibly due to concerns about Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. However, the Japanese government -- with greater marketing success than it has been able to accomplish with the whaling issue -- has managed to create such an environment of fear related to US beef and BSE that, despite the lifting of the ban, it will be a long while before consumers feel comfortable buying it at supermarket shelves. Indeed, immediately after the ban was lifted, several large supermarket chains in Japan said they would take a wait-and-see approach before reintroducing the product in their stores.

But as with the whaling issue, one can't help but feel the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is being disingenuous, if not downright cynical. In point of fact, Japan had it's own BSE problem a few years ago, though this seems to be only dimly remembered now. In September of 2001, the government announced that a dairy cow in Chiba prefecture had tested positive for BSE. However, at first they took pains to cover up the story. They then launched a campaign insisting that domestic beef was safe, before yet another cow tested positive for BSE. By this point, the domestic industry -- as well as beef imports from the US and Australia -- had taken a hit. The government eventually came somewhat clean and implemented nationwide testing, though doubts remained about how thorough they followed through on that. The government instituted beef-buyback programs in order to get domestic beef off the shelves, which also led several companies in 2002 -- Nippon Meat Packers being the most prominent -- to try to pass off imported beef as domestic, rather ironic given what happened a year later.

In December of 2003, the Japan government was in effect gifted the discovery of BSE in a U.S. herd in a cow imported from Canada. Japan immediately imposed a ban on US beef imports, and was able to effectively shift the public's focus away from the safety of domestic beef. The US did itself no favors though, in refusing to implement full-scale testing. Following up on its refusal to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, to say nothing of its imperious foreign policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, it made the perfect bad guy to let Japan off the consumer-safety hook, alleviate concerns about domestic beef, and shore up Prime Minister Koizumi's support among rural voters (eg. folks living in places where cattle is kept and rice is grown), always a key element in ensuring the LDP's grip on power. And it allowed Koizumi to pretend -- even as he was bowing to US pressure by sending Japan's Self Defense Forces (SDF) to Iraq -- to be standing up to Japan's big brother. Both domestic and foreign media, for their part, have bought wholesale Japan's stance as arising solely from health-safety concerns, obliging the government's need to paint itself as altruistic in the matter.

But now, with Koizumi more interested in a smooth exit from the Prime Minister's office (he is stepping down in September) and quoting Elvis songs with his pal George Bush, the government is acquiescing to US pressure and signaling the return of US beef imports. Given the context of the US-Japan relationship in general, and Bush and Koizumi's relationship in particular, only the naive would assume it was a coincidence that just as Japan was agreeing to resume US beef imports, Koizumi was announcing his decision to recall the ground SDF troops back from Iraq. And while many Japanese were disappointed with the lifting of the ban, there was still a palpable sense of pride in having so steadfastly resisted US pressure for as long as Japan did. The fact that the backing down came just a few days after the whale vote victory probably helped soften the blow as well.

Although Japan has a long history of hunting whales, whale meat wasn't really part of the Japanese diet until the post-World War II era when it was a vital source of protein during harsh economic times. But as the country rebuilt itself into the world’s second largest economy, whale meat went from being a stopgap food to an expensive culinary rarity at Ginza sushi shops. Indications are that the general public -- especially middle-aged Japanese and younger -- are indifferent about whale meat. (According to a recent article in Independent, less than 1% of the population eats it regularly). And yet, consistently the government has tried to create the impression that eating whale meat is a sacrosanct part of Japanese culinary tradition.

What whale meat eating really is, is a pawn in a larger nationalistic trend the LDP is only too happy to stoke (and pay for, especially to poor Caribbean and African countries). America and their minions in the IWC are the "culinary imperialists" trying to impinge on Japan's sovereign right to hunt whales. There is a palpable air of don't-tell-us-what-to-do that is not unlike how the Yasukuni Shrine problem plays out with South Korea and China. Meanwhile, like the "Koizumi is visiting the Shrine as a private citizen" loophole, Japan continues to catch hundreds of whales each year in the name of "scientific research," which many maintain is a thinly veiled attempt to continue the supply of whale meat to high-end restaurants and supermarkets.

In both the row with America over beef, and with the continuing fight against the anti-whaling countries of the IWC, the purpose, once one gets past the rhetoric, seems the same: fostering for domestic consumption not steak or whale sashimi but rather the image of a tiny Japan not afraid to stand up to the big boys, especially the US. It's a slightly pathetic effort, given that on just about every major issue, Japan does nothing but kowtow to its de facto protector. But biting the hand that feeds it -- or at least appearing to -- plays well to the masses, keeps the focus away from domestic concerns, and helps the LDP maintain its stranglehold on political power.

http://www.easterwood.org/hmmn/