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Greenpeace activists hold the Japanese symbol,'nise', meaning FAKE - against the hull of the Japanese whaling fleet's factory ship Nisshin Maru.
Enlarge imageThe poll also reveals that 71% of Japanese people don't support their country's whaling on the high seas - an increase from 69% in 2006.
The poll was conducted by Nippon Research Centre, a member of Gallup International Association and surveyed over 1,000 people aged 15 to 60, between January 18 and 23.
It found that in general only 31% of people backed whaling, 25% opposed it and 44% had no opinion.
The low levels of support for whaling in principle and strong rejection of whaling on the high seas comes in stark contrast to the claims from the Japanese Fisheries Agency (JFA), which issues permits for the so-called scientific whale hunt, that it's acting in defence of Japan's cultural traditions.
It is clear that they do not enjoy anything like majority support for whaling and in fact are operating in opposition to the general will of the Japanese people.
Amazingly, 87% of those surveyed didn't know that their hard-earned yen is being squandered on subsidising the JFA’s annual assault on the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
They will also be unaware of plans under consideration by their Government to spend between 14 billion and 21 billion yen (US$125 million to US$188 million) of tax payers money on building a new factory whaling ship to replace the ageing whaling fleet factory ship the Nissin Maru.
