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.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.