Majority of Japanese against whaling, survey says

Majority of Japanese against whaling, survey says

Sixty-nine percent of respondents to the whaling survey, conducted by the Nippon Research Center, said they oppose whaling in high seas.

About 25 percent of respondents think whaling should be banned in both the high seas and Japanese territorial waters, the survey revealed.

But when asked about the international ban on commercial whaling, 35 percent said they were in favor of lifting it while 26 percent were opposed. The remaining 39 percent said they were neither for nor against lifting the ban.

The survey also said 60 percent of respondents agreed that whaling was a traditional aspect of Japanese culture, although about one in five said they had never eaten whale meat, the AP reports.