Hearts, tails and blubber at Japan fin whale tasting

Bite-size portions of fin whale were available to sniff and taste Friday as Japan's whaling industry seeks to rekindle appetite for a traditional protein source that has fallen out of favour.

"Once young people eat it and they realise it's good, they will eat it more and more," Hideki Tokoro, the head of Japan's main whaling firm, said at the event at Tokyo's main wholesale fish market.

"People are excited about the fin whale... It's just delicious," he told AFP in his trademark whale-themed hat and jacket.

Since 2019, Japan has caught whales in its own waters after abandoning under international pressure hunting for "scientific purposes" in the Antarctic Ocean and the North Pacific.

The catch list was limited to sei, minke, and Bryde's whales, but this year fin whales -- the planet's second-largest animal -- were added and on August 1 the first killed.

Tokoro's firm Kyodo Senpaku hopes the taste of fin whale will revive demand and help it recoup the costs of its new 9,300-tonne "mothership".

Almost every part of the whale was on display, including slabs of heart, slices of tail and chunks of blubber.

- Vital source of food -

With three-quarters of Japan mountainous and ill-suited to agriculture, Japan has long relied on the sea -- including whales -- as a vital source of food.

As imports of other meats have grown,  consumption of whale has slumped to around 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes per year compared to around 200 times that in the 1960s.

Kyodo Senpaku this week released footage showing its first fin whale catch. The animal was almost 20 metres (65 feet) long and weighed at least 55 tonnes.

Fin whales are deemed "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Japan's decision to catch them has alarmed conservationists.

Japan's industry has come under additional scrutiny since the arrest of US-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, 73, in Greenland in July on a Japanese warrant.

Watson co-founded Sea Shepherd, whose members played a high-seas game of cat-and-mouse with Japanese whaling ships in the 2000s and 2010s.

- Trendy tacos -

Anna Okada, a visitor to Friday's event who runs a cafe in the Yamanashi region, said that she is on a mission to jazz up whale meat to appeal to younger people.

"Sashimi and deep-fried whale meat have an old-fashioned image of having a bad smell," Okada told AFP.

"The popularity can spread quickly when people try and find it delicious," she said.

"If it's sold from younger people's perspective, for example like casual, stylish and tasty tacos, I think it will be popular quickly."

Some schools are starting to serve it again in their canteens, she said, while products where the whale content isn't obvious -- such as in dumplings -- can increase demand.

Keita Ishii, another visitor to the tasting event who works for an "izakaya" pub in Tokyo -- famous for their meat skewers -- was impressed.

"We're using Bryde's whale (for our restaurant). I came here to look for other whale meat today," he told AFP.

"The fin whale tasted different. It was delicious."