Japan plans to resume Antarctic whaling next year, but with fewer killings and involving only minke whale, revising a research programme that was rejected by the UN's top court.
The Antarctic whale hunt is one of two research whaling programmes that Japan has conducted since a 1986 international ban on commercial whaling.
In March, the International Court of Justice ruled the Antarctic programme was not scientific as Japan claimed and must stop.
Japan's Fisheries Agency said today that officials were working on a new programme for submission to the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee around November. The agency did not provide further details.
Japan will go to the Antarctic later this year, but only for non-lethal research.
Opponents say Japan's research hunt is a cover for commercial whaling.