Japan's Wakayama governor says dolphin hunt part of local tradition

The Governor of Wakayama stated on Tuesday that a traditional dolphin hunt long carried out in the coastal prefecture of Western Japan is a part of the country's " tradition". The governor, Yoshinobu Nisaka, noted that culinary culture is different between countries and regions and that therefore accepting different points of views and behavior is the wisdom of a civilized society, local press reported. The governor told reporters in his office that the people living in the prefecture, surrounded by steep mountains and geographically cut off, have had a particular need to seek foods from nature and that the hunt should be an option to survive as the residents have long followed rules preventing indiscriminate whaling, according to the daily Mainichi Shimbun. He added that human beings also kill other animals such as cows and pigs as well as fish to survive, stressing that it is illogical to only pick out the inhumaneness of an animal hunt that local fishermen have conducted for more than four centuries. The governor's statement was issued after reporters asked him about the tweeted comment on January 18 by U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy on the animal hunt in Taiji, a town with a traditional dolphin "drive hunt" criticized in a documentary and that became an "infamous" spot for anti-whaling groups around the world. At the same time, the governor attributed Ambassador Kennedy's opinion on Twitter to U.S. government policy opposed to whaling, the report said.