nature

Japan’s whaling industry is “dead in the water” and cannot survive without huge taxpayer subsidies, according to a study.

The report, to be published on Tuesday by the charity International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), draws on Japanese government data for the first time to build a case against the use of millions of dollars in public subsidies to prop up the industry amid a dramatic decline in consumption of whale meat.

Last year those subsidies included ¥2.28bn (£15.6m) siphoned off from the budget for reconstructing the region devastated by the March 2011 tsunami.

The report, seen by the Guardian, calls on the government to divert resources to Japan’s fledgling whale-watching industry as a “pro-economy, pro-whale” alternative to its annual “research” hunts in the Antarctic. “Whaling is an unprofitable business that can survive only with substantial subsidies and one that caters to an increasingly shrinking and ageing market,” the report says. (Keep reading)