Dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, have drawn strong protests from animal rights groups, their supporters and foreign media over what they call the brutality of the traditional hunt.
In addition, animal activists are warning of the potentially dangerously high levels of methyl mercury in dolphin meat. Methyl mercury was behind deadly Minamata disease in Japan in the 1950s and '60s.
Meanwhile, fishermen and the government question why slaughtering dolphins is considered brutal when cows, chickens, fish and other edible animals meet the same fate.