Australia says it is considering taking legal action following Japan's announcement of plans to resume whaling in the Southern Ocean during the Southern Hemisphere's summer.
The Australian government has announced it will explore its legal options as it joins 32 other countries in a protest against Japan's decision.
"The Australian government does not support what is a deeply disappointing decision by Japan and we will continue to raise our concerns at the highest level of the Japanese government," foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop and environment minister Greg Hunt said in a joint statement.
Australia previously took Japan to the International Court of Justice in 2010 over its annual whale hunt, and in 2014 the court ruled Japan's whaling was a commercial activity and not the scientific and research activity Japan presented it as.
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986.
In response to the court's decision, Japan halted its whaling in the Southern Ocean for a year, but earlier this month sent a whaling fleet to Antarctica.
In what it continues to present as scientific whaling for research purposes, which are exempt from the IWC's 1986 ban, Japan has killed more than 8,200 minke whales in Antarctic waters since 1986, according to estimates from the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The country has submitted a proposal to the IWC saying it would cut the number of minke whales it takes annually by two-thirds, to 333.
New Zealand has also joined in the protests against the Japanese whaling campaign, with Prime Minister John Key calling on Japan to halt it.
"We consider that there is no scientific basis for the slaughter of whales and strongly urge the Government of Japan not to allow it to go ahead," Key said.
"New Zealand has repeatedly expressed its opposition to Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean," he added. "We will continue to work to see this outdated practice brought to an end."
For its part, Japan has long claimed most whale species are not endangered, and that consumption of whale meat is a long tradition in Japanese culture.
Many Japanese reportedly consider attempts to stop the annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean as an attack on their tradition and culture.
However, a declining demand in Japan for whale meat sold in restaurants and grocery stores has seen the country's whale catch decrease in recent years.
In addition to Australia and New Zealand, the United States, Mexico, European Union member nations and South Africa have expressed opposition to Japan's whaling activities.
