Japan’s whaling science under the microscope

TOKYO: When Japanese researchers said earlier this year that eating whale meat could help prevent dementia and memory loss, the news provoked snorts of derision – it couldn’t be real science, went the retort.

Despite protestations of academic rigour from the men and women who do the work, anything involving the words “Japan”, “whaling” and “research” suffers from a credibility gap in the court of global public opinion.