Taiji, Wakayama

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Taiji (太地町, Taiji-chō?) is a town located in Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Japan.

As of 2007, the town has an estimated population of 3,444 and a density of 577.85 persons per km². The total area is 5.96 km². Taiji is the smallest local government by area in Wakayama Prefecture because, unlike others, it has not experienced a merger since 1889 when the village of Moriura merged into Taiji. Taiji shares its entire overland border with the town of Nachikatsuura and faces the Pacific Ocean. Taiji has been well-known as a whaling town and is considered as the birth place of Japan's traditional whaling method. Taiji's annual dolphin hunting attracts international criticism from many sectors.

Annual dolphin hunt
Main article: Taiji dolphin drive hunt

An annual dolphin hunt takes place off the coast of Taiji. This gained worldwide attention and criticism in 2009 following the release of the documentary film The Cove, which focused on the cruelty of the hunt as well as the high mercury levels present in dolphin meat. The dolphin hunt provides income for local residents and whale and dolphin meat are part of the diet for many local residents.[8] According to the Japanese Fisheries Research Agency, 1,623 dolphins and small whales were caught in Wakayama Prefecture in 2007 for human consumption or resale to dolphinariums, and most of these were caught at Taiji.

In 2010, hair samples from 1,137 Taiji residents was tested for mercury by the National Institute for Minimata Disease. The average amount of methyl mercury found in the hair samples was 11.0 parts per million for men and 6.63 ppm for women, compared with an average of 2.47 ppm for men and 1.64 ppm for women in tests conducted in 14 other locations in Japan. One hundred eighty-two Taiji residents showing extremely high mercury levels underwent further medical testing to check for symptoms of mercury poisoning. None of the Taiji residents, however, displayed any of the traditional symptoms of mercury poisoning, according to the Institute. Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, however, reports that the mortality rate for Taiji and nearby Koazagawa, where dolphin meat is also consumed, is over 50% higher than the rate for similarly-sized villages throughout Japan.

Source: Taiji, Wakayama - Wikipedia

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Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, The Cove follows a high-tech dive team on a mission to discover the truth about the international dolphin capture trade as practiced in Taiji, Japan. Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.


The Cove exposes not only the tragedy of dolphin slaughtering in Japan, but also the dangerously high levels of mercury in dolphin meat and seafood, the cruelty in capturing dolphins for entertainment, and the depletion of our oceans fisheries by worldwide seafood consumption. We also see how the mandate of the International Whaling Commission has been manipulated by the Japanese Fisheries Agency for its benefit and its subsequent effect on the rest of the world.