Australia's position on whaling is "mistaken, alarmist" and values saving whales more than respecting foreign cultures, Japan has told the International Court of Justice.

Starting its defence against a whaling case brought by the Federal Government, Japan's legal team has told the 16 members of the UN's top court that Australia is seeking to impose its "no-compromise, zero-tolerance" anti-whaling views on other countries.

"It seeks to apply the (International) Whaling Convention as if it was the anti-whaling convention," Payam Akhavan, the lawyer representing Japan, told the court.

"Since 1979 Australia has pursued an express policy of using the IWC, against its stated purpose, to ban all whaling. It has politicised science in order to impose Australian values on Japan in disregard of international law."

He said Antarctic minke whales were abundant in the Southern Ocean, not endangered. "This stands in stark contrast to the alarmist assertions of impending catastrophe in Australia's pleadings," he said.

Despite an international whaling moratorium in force since 1986, Japan continues to catch whales in the Antarctic under a treaty that allows unlimited whaling for scientific research.

Professor Akhavan said Japan had complied with the moratorium despite a 2,000-year tradition of whale hunting, leaving coastal communities in anguish because they can no longer practice their ancestral traditions.

Australia last week told the court that Japan's so-called research-based whaling program was a parody of science driven by commercial considerations.

Japan has said its program is guided by the scientific purpose of lethal sampling with a view to exploring what can be done to recommence whaling in a durable, sustainable manner. It is not "a disguise for commercial activity", Professor Akhavan said.

But critics say the real reason for the hunt is to continue harvesting whale meat.

Australia presents its argument in the case at the court in The Hague. ( News Online Sydney )

Japan's deputy foreign minister Koji Tsuruoka told the hearing his country had the right to hunt and kill the marine mammals for scientific research.

"Japan is conducting a comprehensive scientific research program because it wishes to resume commercial whaling, based on science, in a sustainable manner," he said.

Australia argues Japan's collection of raw data without having in mind a specific question does not qualify as scientific and that its research is just a smokescreen.

Mr Tsuruoka has said Japan caught and killed 850 whales each year, providing data that would allow the country to whale without risking a repeat of past over-whaling and stock depletion.

"Are all cetaceans sacred and endangered? I can understand the emotional background to this position but fail to see how it can be translated to a legal position," he said.

"We do not criticise other cultures. Were it necessary to establish the superiority of one culture over another, the world would never be at peace."

Both countries have agreed to be bound by the verdict of the Hague-based court.

Activists are hoping for a ruling against Tokyo that they believe will put an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean, although Japan could withdraw from international whaling agreements and continue whaling even if it did lose the case.

ABC/Reuters