This is an issue that a lot of people get worked up over, with nearly all of the comments coming from outside Japan.
Here's an interesting article that I came across last time I was there - published inside the country, albeit for an English-language readership. It's well worth a read, both for the content as well as for the insight it can give into the politics and resource management in Japan. Note that the author has written on this subject before and clearly has a personal position on the issue.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20070801a1.html
Below is a partial quote of the article, it's too long to post in its entirety. I've marked the cuts in an effort to fairly report the content.
Bottom line, some local Japanese politicians think that the dolphin hunt might need to end because the shockingly high levels of mercury might be poisoning the kids who are given the meat to eat as their school lunches...
"Japan Times, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007
Taiji officials: Dolphin meat 'toxic waste'
Assembly pair break taboo, warn of acute mercury risk in school lunches
By BOYD HARNELL
Special to The Japan Times
For what is believed to be the first time anywhere in Japan, elected officials have openly condemned the consumption of dolphin meat, especially in school lunches, on grounds that it is dangerously contaminated with mercury.
Taiji City Assemblymen Junichiro Yam*******a (left) and Hisato Ryono have broken ranks to condemn locally caught "toxic" dolphin, whose meat is being served in school lunches in their area of Wakayama Prefecture and elsewhere.
In an exclusive interview with The Japan Times held in Kii Katsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, on July 19, Assemblymen Junichiro Yam*******a, 59, and Hisato Ryono, 51, from the nearby whaling city of Taiji said they had found extremely high mercury and methylmercury levels in samples of meat from pilot whales killed inshore by Taiji hunters and put on sale in that locality.
The pilot whale, or "gondo" (Globicephala macrorhynchus), is the largest of the dolphin family of small cetaceans. This species is among some 2,300 dolphins slaughtered annually in Taiji, after the mammals are herded in "drive fisheries" into small coves, where they are speared and hacked to death. Similar hunts elsewhere in Japan are estimated to account for at least another 20,000 small cetaceans annually.
The Taiji assemblymen, who are both independents, also condemned the growing practice of feeding this meat to children in their school lunches describing it as no less than "toxic waste."
The random samples tested by the two assemblymen were bought at supermarkets in Taiji and nearby Shingu, and were similarly sourced to the meat served to children in whale-meat lunches at Taiji schools. Such lunches may also have been served in schools in other prefectures, the Taiji officials said.
Yam*******a and Ryono defied the code of silence traditionally shrouding sensitive issues, especially one that could threaten the economy of their small, isolated fishing town on the scenic Kii Peninsula.
Asked why, they said local people were getting very anxious about food safety in Japan. Recent reports of contaminated products from China have heightened their concerns, they said.
Yam*******a explained, "We're not against traditional whaling, but we heard claims that pilot whales are poisoned with mercury, and we discovered that some of this meat from a (drive fishery) was fed to kids in school lunches."
He said that although they had doubted the pilot whales were contaminated with mercury, they decided to have certified lab tests carried out nonetheless.
"We tested some samples purchased at the Gyokyo supermarket in Taiji and Super Center Okuwa in the nearby city of Shingu," Yam*******a said, adding they were "shocked" by the results.
One dolphin sample had a mercury content 10 times above the health ministry's advisory level of 0.4 parts per million, with a methylmercury readout 10.33 times over the ministry's own advisory level of 0.3 ppm.
Another dolphin sample tested 15.97 times and 12 times above advisory levels of total mercury and methylmercury, respectively.
The results prompted the two officials to describe dolphin meat as "toxic waste."
In fact, the dolphin levels were higher than some of the mercury-tainted seafood tested during the tragic Minamata mercury-pollution disaster of the 1950s, according to Dr. Shigeo Ekino of Kumamoto Medical Science University in Kyushu. In that episode, thousands were sickened, disabled or died in the toxic chemical disaster.
Ekino is famous for his breakthrough study of brain specimens from deceased Minamata disease victims that reveals how even low levels of methylmercury can damage or destroy neurons.
After they received the test results, the Taiji lawmakers, anxious about the possible toxic effects of pilot-whale meat consumed by local schoolchildren, quickly contacted Masahiko Tamaki, an official of the Wakayama pre-fectural health section, and showed him the test results from their samples.
Yam*******a said, "He (Tamaki) seems to think he has to do something, but doesn't know how to do it."
Tamaki was hesitant to confront the mercury issue due to possible repercussions, and offered no solutions, Yam*******a said, adding, "The Wakayama health section simply told me they didn't want to upset Taiji people."
But Yam*******a said: "According to the high mercury result, if they continue, the people will be harmed this harm, spread through school lunches, is terrible because children will be forced to eat mercury-tainted dolphin."
Despite the Taiji pair's urgent health concerns, however, Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen plans to build a new slaughterhouse for processing meat from pilot whales and other dolphins caught during globally condemned drive fisheries there.
He also wants to expand the provision of school lunches containing pilot whale meat.
Ryono said, "We may not be able to prevent the building of a new slaughterhouse, but we will continue to appeal to Taiji people not to use dolphin for school lunches."
...cut here...
Top researchers in Japan's medical community have also voiced concern about the high levels of mercury found in small-cetacean food products.
Ekino told The Japan Times: "Everyone should avoid eating dolphin meat. If people continue to eat dolphin, there's a high probability of them having damage to their brains. . . . No government agency is studying the problem no scientists in Japan want to study the subject; it's very political."
...cut here...
Tetsuya Endo, a professor and researcher at Hokkaido Health Science University's faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, affirmed the other doctors' condemnation of small-cetacean food products.
In a terse e-mail sent to this correspondent, Endo said, in reference to dolphin meat, "It's not food!"
In 2005, Endo published the results of a three-year study on random samples of cetacean food products sold throughout Japan, and concluded all of it was unhealthy because of high levels of mercury and methylmercury.
However, Hideki Moronuki, deputy director of the government's Far Seas Fisheries Division of the Resources Management Department, in an interview with The Japan Times, maligned Endo's study, calling it "misleading information." When pressed, though, he failed to substantiate his accusation.
Endo, however, responded to The Japan Times in an e-mail, saying, "If he (Moronuki) has any basis for his comments, he has the responsibility to show it because it is deeply related to human health."
Moronuki was specifically asked if there was a mercury problem with dolphins. His response: "No."
He acknowledged that doctors' reports (of high mercury levels) may be correct, but claimed, "I don't think it causes a problem with consumers."
When asked if he thought consuming dolphin meat was dangerous, he said, "No."
But he conceded that eating too much dolphin meat could be "dangerous."
Moronuki was also asked if he felt responsible for the poisoning of his own people. He replied: "No. I am responsible for the management of the dolphin fishery, that's it."
...cut here...
The health ministry has been aware of the mercury problem in small cetaceans (not to mention in the meat from great whales) for many years, but so far it has refused to ban the sale of such food products.
In particular despite unequivocal scientific test results it has failed to require the posting of warning labels for consumers of dolphin meat.
This approach continues despite an advisory order, Kan Nyu Dai 99 Ban, established July 23, 1973, under which a warning was issued to prefectural and local governments by the then director of the environmental and health agency, stating that mercury in seafood must not exceed the advisory level of 0.4 ppm.
Although still in effect, enforcement of the advisory order by governors and mayors has been lax and unchallenged.
But the reaction around the killing coves of Taiji was swift in confronting the two assemblymen's health concerns.
On the one hand, Gyokyo, the leading local supermarket, pulled pilot whale meat off its shelves, and will not resume its sale, according to Takuya Kondo, assistant director of the health ministry's Department of Food Safety's Standards and Evaluation Division.
Kondo said, "The (Taiji) government has to comply with . . . provisional regulations. . . . They are not supposed to sell (dolphin meat) if it is over the advisory level of 0.4 ppm for mercury."
Yam*******a and Ryono believe many people in Japan are unaware of the (health) problems related to consuming dolphin meat, and they say they want to educate people through an Internet blog currently posted by the Save Japan Dolphins coalition, an international conservation group.
...cut here...
Here's an interesting article that I came across last time I was there - published inside the country, albeit for an English-language readership. It's well worth a read, both for the content as well as for the insight it can give into the politics and resource management in Japan. Note that the author has written on this subject before and clearly has a personal position on the issue.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20070801a1.html
Below is a partial quote of the article, it's too long to post in its entirety. I've marked the cuts in an effort to fairly report the content.
Bottom line, some local Japanese politicians think that the dolphin hunt might need to end because the shockingly high levels of mercury might be poisoning the kids who are given the meat to eat as their school lunches...
"Japan Times, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007
Taiji officials: Dolphin meat 'toxic waste'
Assembly pair break taboo, warn of acute mercury risk in school lunches
By BOYD HARNELL
Special to The Japan Times
For what is believed to be the first time anywhere in Japan, elected officials have openly condemned the consumption of dolphin meat, especially in school lunches, on grounds that it is dangerously contaminated with mercury.
Taiji City Assemblymen Junichiro Yam*******a (left) and Hisato Ryono have broken ranks to condemn locally caught "toxic" dolphin, whose meat is being served in school lunches in their area of Wakayama Prefecture and elsewhere.
In an exclusive interview with The Japan Times held in Kii Katsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, on July 19, Assemblymen Junichiro Yam*******a, 59, and Hisato Ryono, 51, from the nearby whaling city of Taiji said they had found extremely high mercury and methylmercury levels in samples of meat from pilot whales killed inshore by Taiji hunters and put on sale in that locality.
The pilot whale, or "gondo" (Globicephala macrorhynchus), is the largest of the dolphin family of small cetaceans. This species is among some 2,300 dolphins slaughtered annually in Taiji, after the mammals are herded in "drive fisheries" into small coves, where they are speared and hacked to death. Similar hunts elsewhere in Japan are estimated to account for at least another 20,000 small cetaceans annually.
The Taiji assemblymen, who are both independents, also condemned the growing practice of feeding this meat to children in their school lunches describing it as no less than "toxic waste."
The random samples tested by the two assemblymen were bought at supermarkets in Taiji and nearby Shingu, and were similarly sourced to the meat served to children in whale-meat lunches at Taiji schools. Such lunches may also have been served in schools in other prefectures, the Taiji officials said.
Yam*******a and Ryono defied the code of silence traditionally shrouding sensitive issues, especially one that could threaten the economy of their small, isolated fishing town on the scenic Kii Peninsula.
Asked why, they said local people were getting very anxious about food safety in Japan. Recent reports of contaminated products from China have heightened their concerns, they said.
Yam*******a explained, "We're not against traditional whaling, but we heard claims that pilot whales are poisoned with mercury, and we discovered that some of this meat from a (drive fishery) was fed to kids in school lunches."
He said that although they had doubted the pilot whales were contaminated with mercury, they decided to have certified lab tests carried out nonetheless.
"We tested some samples purchased at the Gyokyo supermarket in Taiji and Super Center Okuwa in the nearby city of Shingu," Yam*******a said, adding they were "shocked" by the results.
One dolphin sample had a mercury content 10 times above the health ministry's advisory level of 0.4 parts per million, with a methylmercury readout 10.33 times over the ministry's own advisory level of 0.3 ppm.
Another dolphin sample tested 15.97 times and 12 times above advisory levels of total mercury and methylmercury, respectively.
The results prompted the two officials to describe dolphin meat as "toxic waste."
In fact, the dolphin levels were higher than some of the mercury-tainted seafood tested during the tragic Minamata mercury-pollution disaster of the 1950s, according to Dr. Shigeo Ekino of Kumamoto Medical Science University in Kyushu. In that episode, thousands were sickened, disabled or died in the toxic chemical disaster.
Ekino is famous for his breakthrough study of brain specimens from deceased Minamata disease victims that reveals how even low levels of methylmercury can damage or destroy neurons.
After they received the test results, the Taiji lawmakers, anxious about the possible toxic effects of pilot-whale meat consumed by local schoolchildren, quickly contacted Masahiko Tamaki, an official of the Wakayama pre-fectural health section, and showed him the test results from their samples.
Yam*******a said, "He (Tamaki) seems to think he has to do something, but doesn't know how to do it."
Tamaki was hesitant to confront the mercury issue due to possible repercussions, and offered no solutions, Yam*******a said, adding, "The Wakayama health section simply told me they didn't want to upset Taiji people."
But Yam*******a said: "According to the high mercury result, if they continue, the people will be harmed this harm, spread through school lunches, is terrible because children will be forced to eat mercury-tainted dolphin."
Despite the Taiji pair's urgent health concerns, however, Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen plans to build a new slaughterhouse for processing meat from pilot whales and other dolphins caught during globally condemned drive fisheries there.
He also wants to expand the provision of school lunches containing pilot whale meat.
Ryono said, "We may not be able to prevent the building of a new slaughterhouse, but we will continue to appeal to Taiji people not to use dolphin for school lunches."
...cut here...
Top researchers in Japan's medical community have also voiced concern about the high levels of mercury found in small-cetacean food products.
Ekino told The Japan Times: "Everyone should avoid eating dolphin meat. If people continue to eat dolphin, there's a high probability of them having damage to their brains. . . . No government agency is studying the problem no scientists in Japan want to study the subject; it's very political."
...cut here...
Tetsuya Endo, a professor and researcher at Hokkaido Health Science University's faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, affirmed the other doctors' condemnation of small-cetacean food products.
In a terse e-mail sent to this correspondent, Endo said, in reference to dolphin meat, "It's not food!"
In 2005, Endo published the results of a three-year study on random samples of cetacean food products sold throughout Japan, and concluded all of it was unhealthy because of high levels of mercury and methylmercury.
However, Hideki Moronuki, deputy director of the government's Far Seas Fisheries Division of the Resources Management Department, in an interview with The Japan Times, maligned Endo's study, calling it "misleading information." When pressed, though, he failed to substantiate his accusation.
Endo, however, responded to The Japan Times in an e-mail, saying, "If he (Moronuki) has any basis for his comments, he has the responsibility to show it because it is deeply related to human health."
Moronuki was specifically asked if there was a mercury problem with dolphins. His response: "No."
He acknowledged that doctors' reports (of high mercury levels) may be correct, but claimed, "I don't think it causes a problem with consumers."
When asked if he thought consuming dolphin meat was dangerous, he said, "No."
But he conceded that eating too much dolphin meat could be "dangerous."
Moronuki was also asked if he felt responsible for the poisoning of his own people. He replied: "No. I am responsible for the management of the dolphin fishery, that's it."
...cut here...
The health ministry has been aware of the mercury problem in small cetaceans (not to mention in the meat from great whales) for many years, but so far it has refused to ban the sale of such food products.
In particular despite unequivocal scientific test results it has failed to require the posting of warning labels for consumers of dolphin meat.
This approach continues despite an advisory order, Kan Nyu Dai 99 Ban, established July 23, 1973, under which a warning was issued to prefectural and local governments by the then director of the environmental and health agency, stating that mercury in seafood must not exceed the advisory level of 0.4 ppm.
Although still in effect, enforcement of the advisory order by governors and mayors has been lax and unchallenged.
But the reaction around the killing coves of Taiji was swift in confronting the two assemblymen's health concerns.
On the one hand, Gyokyo, the leading local supermarket, pulled pilot whale meat off its shelves, and will not resume its sale, according to Takuya Kondo, assistant director of the health ministry's Department of Food Safety's Standards and Evaluation Division.
Kondo said, "The (Taiji) government has to comply with . . . provisional regulations. . . . They are not supposed to sell (dolphin meat) if it is over the advisory level of 0.4 ppm for mercury."
Yam*******a and Ryono believe many people in Japan are unaware of the (health) problems related to consuming dolphin meat, and they say they want to educate people through an Internet blog currently posted by the Save Japan Dolphins coalition, an international conservation group.
...cut here...
Rare writing. They are without doubt one of the coolest crabs ever. They are good eatin' but man do you have to work at it. They also pinch hard!!! 
