Innovation? Whale Meat in Vending Machines in Japan, Cheaper Than Bacon in the U.S.

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 20/09/2023 at 22:12

Máquinas automáticas vendem carne de baleia no Japão (Imagem /Reprodução Kyodo Senpaku)

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Japanese Company Initiative Aims to Popularize Whale Meat, Putting It at the Reach of a Simple Button.

It seems surreal, but it’s true. Kyodo Senpaku Co., a whaling company from Japan, decided to innovate in the way the product is sold.

According to information from the Associated Press, the company installed three vending machines in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. In them, you find everything: from whale sashimi to canned whale.

Cheaper Than Bacon in the U.S.

And the price? Well, it varies between 1,000 yen (about 7.70 dollars) and 3,000 yen (approximately 23 dollars). To give a parameter, the cheapest option is almost the price of a kilogram of bacon in the United States, which costs about 7.21 dollars, according to 2021 data from Statista.

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Broadening Horizons: 100 Locations in 5 Years

Konomu Kubo, spokesperson for Kyodo Senpaku, stated that the goal is ambitious. The company plans to open 100 new locations in five years, especially near supermarkets that have stopped selling whale meat, often due to pressure from activists opposed to whaling.

Although it is a millennia-old practice in Japan, whaling is an industry with a quite reduced scale in the country currently. Japan halted commercial whaling in 1987, after joining the International Whaling Commission. However, it continued whaling under the pretext of scientific research, which generated controversy.

Conflicts and Consequences

It’s not just the machines that generate discussion. Nanami Kurasawa, leader of the Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network, warns that the real problem is not the machines, but what they may represent in the future. Critics argue that the “scientific research” would merely be an excuse to continue selling whale meat.

Automatic machines sell whale meat in Japan (Video / Reproduction VOA Türkçe)

About Kyodo Senpaku

Kyodo Senpaku, a Japanese whaling company, launches an innovative marketing strategy by making whale meat available in vending machines.

Located in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, the machines offer a variety of products ranging from whale sashimi to canned meat, with prices comparable to that of a kilogram of bacon in the United States. The initiative aims to expand the whale meat market and circumvent the restrictions in supermarkets, which are often pressured by anti-whaling activists.

Innovation? Whale Meat in Vending Machines in Japan, Cheaper Than Bacon in the U.S.

Japanese Company Initiative Aims to Popularize Whale Meat, Putting It at the Reach of a Simple Button.

Cheaper Than Bacon in the U.S.

Broadening Horizons: 100 Locations in 5 Years

Conflicts and Consequences

About Kyodo Senpaku

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Innovation? Whale Meat in Vending Machines in Japan, Cheaper Than Bacon in the U.S.

Japanese Company Initiative Aims to Popularize Whale Meat, Putting It at the Reach of a Simple Button.

Cheaper Than Bacon in the U.S.

Broadening Horizons: 100 Locations in 5 Years

Conflicts and Consequences

About Kyodo Senpaku

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Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

An entire island in the Pacific wants to surround itself with a colossal barrier against the ocean to try to escape increasingly violent waves and not be swallowed by the sea in the coming decades.

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Peru built a tunnel at an altitude of 4,738 meters cutting through the Andes Mountains, and the road leading to it reaches 4,818 meters, making it the highest paved road in the entire world.

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