Whale hunting issue in Japan

Recently we can see articles about Japanese whale hunting.
Many countries and NGOs are aganst this Japanese action. Australian activist "Sea Shepard" threw away anything like chemicals to Japnaese suvey ship. I think this is too radical and dangerous.

However I also think Japanese Government is irrational. My opinion is to quit the hunting right now. But I agree that hunting whales were one of Japanese tradition. When we didn't have enough food after the war, whales were important proteins for children in the schools. But eating whales was just one of our culture. And now we have enouh food and there is no need to eat whales.

I know some people who demand hunting think "Western people killed tons of whales for only their oils, while Japanese made the best use of them. Why do they regard us as bad men?" I feel sympathy with this opinion. But yet I think we don't have to hunt whales. Becasue we can't find a certain reason to persist whales. We kill animals to keep our lives. We kill cows and pigs to keep our lives. They are common in our food. But not whales.

Japan has lots of other serious problems such as aging population, grobal warming and education. We should forcus on these issues. Whale hunting looks sensational, but essantially tiny problem to be solved.