The Fisheries Agency has warned its officials against accepting whale meat as gifts from whalers, just weeks after Japan's whaling expedition left for the Antarctic Ocean.
The agency reprimanded five officials for accepting whale meat from a fisheries company that operated the government-funded whaling programs from 1999 to 2008, agency official Koji Hamada said Friday.
The whale meat gifts totaled some 25 kg, worth more than ¥270,000 at market value.