Here in Taiji, where residents have always taken pride in their town's whaling history, there have been steady moves among locals to distance themselves from anything to do with whales.

Miyato Sugimori, a 50-year-old official of the Taiji fisheries association, remembers vividly the day when his eldest son suddenly refused to eat whale meat.

The family had a plate of whale sashimi, his son's favorite, on the table for supper. However, the boy, then a fifth-grader in elementary school, refused to touch it.

"Children of Taiji must eat it," he told his son. "You must eat it."