Jūrō Oka

Life & Legacy

Jūrō Oka (岡 十郎 Oka Jūrō, 27 July 1870 – 8 January 1923) was a Japanese businessman considered the "father of Japanese whaling".
In the 1890s Oka travelled to the West to acquire whaling techniques and equipment, and in 1899 established Nihon En'yō Gyogyō K.K., which caught its first whale the following year with Norwegian gunner. Whaling in Japan grew rapidly and competition was fierce. In 1908 Oka became the first president of the Japan Whaling Association. Oka declared Japan would "become one of the greatest whaling nations in the world ... The day will come when we shall hear one morning that whales have been caught in the Arctic and in the evening that whales are being hunted in the Antarctic."