To eat them! The tradition goes back to the Middle Ages.

Whale hunting is officially banned today, but Japan has never really stopped.

So why this persistence?

Up to the 20th century, it was Norway that hunted whales the most, using the oil in industry and for lighting.

After the Second World War, whale meat fed the starving Japanese population. The number of whales caught skyrocketed.

The survival of the species was in danger. So, as from 1986, commercial whale hunting was banned.