Well, even if we assume you're right, the Japanese certainly don't have a monopoly on ethically questionable relationships with animals (i.e., which they ought to recognize as such, given what they know scientifically).
Consider how in America people have very different ideas of how pigs and dogs ought to be treated, despite how pigs have been shown to be at least as intelligent and sentient as dogs.
I don't think the widespread ban on whaling is concerned with the intelligence of whales or the inhumanity of killing them; rather, it's concerned with the potential extinction of a species, which is absolutely not a concern with lifestock animals.
They largely hunt minke whales, which are not threatened. The entire industry is basically a boondoggle too; there's no massive demand. I'd be more worried about tuna fishing.
>> the Japanese certainly don't have a monopoly on questionably consistent relationships with animals.
There are some unique aspects to Japanese whaling. It isn't just about eating whales, nor is is about culture. The scant studies that have come from their "research" whaling operation suggests they see whales as a competitor species for fish (focus on stomach contents etc). The dark interpretation of this is that they don't want whale populations to increase, that they are killing whales for no other reason than to make them dead. That would be a very unique human-animal relationship imho. I cannot think of any other species with which we compete for sustenance.
For perspective, the world sperm whale population probably consumes as much fish as the entire human population harvests from the ocean.
Stealing livestock. An artificial situation of our own construction. Not us both out in the woods chasing the same rabbit. Fox is a pest. We do not compete.
