Work Organization of Whaling

Let us now turn from the historical background of Japanese whaling and concentrate instead on the way work therein has been organized.1 For it is by focussing on the work organization of whaling in Japan that we will be able to discuss the concept of a “whaling culture”. Our basic argument is that any form of whaling can be broken down into a series of distinct components which represent stages of production. Here we will outline the main features of each of the three modern types of whaling defined in the previous chapter, our aim being to bring out structural similarities and historical continuities among different forms of whaling that have existed in the past and still exist today. In particular we will argue that there is a sharp division between activities involved in hunting and processing in all types of whaling, and that this division transcends differences among the three types of whaling under discussion. It is this which will enable us later to argue for the concept of a whaling culture in Japan.