This town with ties to whales that go back more than three centuries is staking its future on the giant mammals despite Japan's forced halting of commercial whaling in 1988.
Masashi Urayama, a former fisherman who used to catch dolphins, is betting that whale watching, not hunting, is his and the town's future. He captains the whale-watching ship Sueyoshi Maru, which takes tourists about 40 km out into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Taiji.
People who crowd the deck of the Sueyoshi Maru are treated to the sight of migrating pods of sperm whales and a cold-water bath from the high swells.
Schools of dolphins are also common in the area, leaping and frolicking around the ship.