Shimonoseki: Japan's whaling fleet set sail for the Antarctic on Tuesday to resume its hunt after a year-long hiatus, prompting criticism from Australia as well as key ally, the United States.

Japan aims to take more than 300 whales before the hunt ends next year and nearly 4000 over the next 12 years as part of a scientific programme to research the whales.

A minke whale is unloaded in Kushiro, a port on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, in 2013. Credit:AP

The International Court of Justice ruled last year that Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean should stop and an International Whaling Commission panel said in April that Japan had yet to demonstrate a need for killing whales.

But Tokyo retooled its plan for the 2015/16 season to cut the number of minke whales it intends to take to 333, down by two-thirds from previous hunts.