An increasing number of elementary and junior high schools have resumed putting whale meat in lunches, according to Wakayama Prefecture's board of education, which is promoting its use.
The Wakayama board, which resumed regular use of whale in school lunches in January 2005, has organized tasting events in Tokyo and has asked the lunch panels of boards of education nationwide to use the meat, the officials said.
The prefecture is famous for whaling, with the town of Taiji known as the birthplace of organized whaling in Japan.
"We want (schoolchildren) to know Japan's traditional dietary culture through whale meat, which was popular in the past," one board official said.
Schools in Nara and other prefectures began to offer whale toward the end of last year after the Wakayama board started its promotions, the officials said.
Some 1,657 kg of whale meat was provided via the school lunch panel of Wakayama's board of education for more than 100 schools in Kyoto, Osaka and Nara prefectures and Tokyo last month alone, the officials said, about double the amount for all of 2005.
Kanagawa Prefecture's board of education is now considering whale meat for lunches, and a tasting event was organized at an elementary school in Kawasaki in late January, they said.
Use of whale meat in school lunches nationwide, excluding whaling areas, had been halted since 1982, when the International Whaling Commission suspended commercial whaling.