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Kyodo Senpaku, whose vessels led Japan’s whaling fleet during its controversial expeditions to the Southern Ocean, opened its first kujira (whale meat) “stores” at two locations in Tokyo this month after a successful trial late last year.
The machines sell a variety of whale meat products, including canned items containing meat imported from Iceland, bacon, steaks and red meat that can be eaten raw as sashimi. Prices range from 1,000 (£6) to 3,000 yen.
Miki Yamanaka, a Tokyo woman, said meat she had bought from the machines had proved a hit with members of her family.
“My father ate tatsuta-age [fried whale meat] with a nostalgic look on his face, and my eldest son in high school is a fan of whale steak cooked with soy sauce,” Yamanaka, 43, told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper at Kyodo Senpaku’s store in the capital’s south-eastern suburbs.
Every year, Kyodo Senpaku provides about 100 tonnes of whale meat to schools for use in children’s lunches.
