In the early 1970s, Japan began to receive rapidly-mounting criticism from the US over whaling. The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm, recommended a 10-year moratorium on commercial whaling. Despite Japan’s struggle to turn the anti-whaling tide, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1982 decided to implement a pause in the commercial whaling of all whale species and populations. The 1982 moratorium encouraged Tokyo to negotiate with Washington, leading to a compromise in the mid-1980s.

This article aims to reveal how US–Japan relations evolved over the lifespan of this debate, with a special emphasis on the way the multilateral diplomacy at IWC intersected with the Japanese diplomacy vis-à-vis the United States. Analyzing primary sources from the Japanese government along with other materials such as newspapers, this paper examines the process in which the Japanese government grew increasingly disillusioned with the IWC’s viability and turned to the series of negotiations with the American government to secure the right of whaling in some fashion.

This article, moreover, provides a broader perspective by examining a seminal change in international relations. The 1970s saw the diversification of the entities involved in international exchanges, as the influence that the media, citizens, NGOs, and lawmakers had on cross-border discussion became greater. Consequently, intangible concepts, such as images and emotions that one country’s public holds vis-à-vis the other, became as important as official foreign policies. In other words, both governmental and societal relations among nations came to define international relationships.

Early literature mainly focuses on Japan’s whaling policy as well as domestic structures—political, cultural, and societal—surrounding whaling. When it comes to US–Japan disputes over whaling in the early 1970s, there are some existing studies, but none utilizes primary sources to deal with the timespan from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, during which the Japanese and Americans engaged in heated debate over whaling. Regarding primary sources, this paper mainly utilizes the materials of Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which are the most advanced in terms of declassification and openness to the public among Japanese ministries.

With regard to US–Japan relations, the period that this paper explores witnessed the friction between the two countries bearing cultural and social contours. The US public began problematizing a “closed, parochial, and inhumane” character of the Japanese society. This kind of blame marked an ominous sign for “Japan bashing” that characterized the US–Japan relationship from 1980s to the early 1990s.

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This article deals with the history of whaling in Norway, and provides an overview of the current situation of coastal minke whaling in the northern part of Norway and the commodity chain of minke whale meat in Norway. The first section briefly illustrates the history of whaling in Norway: how Norway developed the modern method in the mid-19th century, and how Norway developed pelagic whaling in the Antarctic Ocean in the early 20th century. While modern whaling had its roots in seal hunting for its fur and blubber, pelagic whaling in the Southern Ocean was exclusively for the oil. Aside from the pelagic whaling for oil, Norway has practiced small scale coastal whaling for meat since the late 1920s. When IWC decided to put the Moratorium in place in 1982, Norway objected to this decision, which allowed Norway to continue its commercial whaling. Using various secondary statistical data, I explore the current situation of minke whaling in Norway, that started in 1993 when Norway resumed commercial whaling after the voluntary moratorium set in 1988. Based on data gathered from my fieldwork, a case study of one whale meat processing company, operating in Lofoten Islands, Norland county, is also discussed. The characteristics of coastal whaling in Norway can be summarized as: 1) domestic demands for minke whale meat is about 600 tons, 2) whale meat processing industry heavily depends on seasonal migrant workers from eastern Europe, 3) supply of whale meat has been decreasing since 2015, 4) this is probably due to low price of whale meat, and 5) major processors target Japanese sashimi market for their products, which may cause structural changes in minke whaling in Norway in the future.

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Determination was made of fatty acid components of minke whale blubber oils as a part of “Japanese 1987/1988 research plan on the feasibility of -program of research on southern hemisphere minke whales and preliminary research on the marine ecosystem in the Antarctic-”. Blubber was obtained from 8 male immature, 1 male maturing, 16 male mature, 4 female immature and 9 female mature (pregnant) minke whales caught in Antarctic ocean from January to March of 1988. Oil content varied widely from 11.9% to 52.1%, according to the sex and the age of the animal. All blubber oils contained about 45 fatty acid components varying in composition. The major fatty acids were 18 : 1, 16 : 1, 16 : 0, 20 : 5, 14 : 0 and 22 : 6, where n : m indicates fatty acids with n carbon atoms and m e=c double bonds.

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 This study examines the American whaling industry, which was based in New England and dominated most of the Western oil market in the 18th and 19th centuries. Previous studies by the author examined why the industry was attracted to this region, highlighting the favorable economic environment of the area, which allowed investors to accumulate the necessary funds to launch whaling ventures. Each investment consortium that provided funds to whaling vessels organized limited partnerships with individual vessels. This enabled consortiums to collect funds from a variety of stakeholders other than just businessmen involved in whaling and their families. Crewmembers of the vessel, reflecting the multi-racial society of the United States, were also free to select employers without relying on a conventional employer-employee relationship. Taken together, these factors led to New England attracting funds and labor from both within the region and further afield, and developing into the whaling center of the United States.
 An additional reason for New England's development as a whaling base was the global expansion of the industry to cover the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, with only the Southern Ocean not affected by this growth. Crewmembers were also paid from a ship's profits using the lay system. This payment by piece ratio ensured a minimum payment to crewmembers while guaranteeing a return for investors. The hiring of native islanders as part-time laborers in the whalers' areas of operation also kept expenditure to a minimum, with all of these factors contributing to investors' profits.
 Against this background, the whaling industry prospered and profited up until the 1850s. In the 1870s, however, the industry started to decline as whale resources decreased and the price of whale oil fell as a result of increased petroleum production. This study examines the details of how whaling voyages were managed during this period and how New England's whaling industry underwent a rapid transformation into a mechanized cotton industry with the owners of whaling vessels switching their investments to the cotton industry at New Bedford, the center of the whaling industry in New England. The rapid change from industrial whaling to the mechanical cotton industry in New England was made possible with the abundant funds accumulated by the whaling industry. The reestablishment of consortiums progressed smoothly as limited partnerships already existed and the labor market adapted efficiently from supplying whaling vessels to supplying female workers for the cotton industry due to the presence of non-conventional employment rules.
 We can see, therefore, in this region the development from one industry to another was controlled only by market-based mechanisms of American management. This is in sharp contrast to the Japanese fishing industry, which developed from a manufacturing fishery through technological innovation and utilizing community manpower or industrial power as the only motive force under limited investment and labor market conditions.

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