EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Japanese whaling fleet has restarted operations in the north-west Pacific for the first time since the UN's highest court banned Tokyo's so-called scientific whaling program in the Antarctic.

Not surprisingly, the move has outraged anti-whaling activists.

North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney reports.

MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: In the northern Japanese port of Ayukawa, the whaling fleet has just begun its annual spring hunt. Security is tight.

This season they hope to catch 210 whales. Despite the ban in the Antarctic, the Japanese will continue their scientific whaling program from here and two other ports.

Whaling in the north-west Pacific is proving much more important to Japan, in the last two seasons, they've taken about 550 whales. In the Southern Oceans, it is much less with about 350 taken.

This area was hit hard by the 2011 tsunami and the locals are relieved that whaling has resumed.

KENJI TAKAHASHI, SUSHI CHEF (TRANSLATED): Many things were damaged and lost here by the disaster. We've got a long history of whaling here and if it goes, we'll lose everything.

MATTHEW CARNEY: In March, the International Court of Justice ruled that scientific whaling was little more than commercial whaling in disguise. Many hoped it would be the end of Japanese whaling, but it's open to interpretation whether the ban extends to the north-west Pacific.

MASAYUKI CHIJIMUTSU, STORE OWNER (TRANSLATED): Our whale meat is your beef. I think you understand my feeling. Beef for Australia is whale for us.

MATTHEW CARNEY: At the end of the day the whaling fleet returns with its first kill, a coastal minke whale. It's measured and samples are taken. Then it's off to market to be sold.

The return of whaling here is likely to trigger another round of anti-whaling protests and clashes at sea.

The ultimate aim of Japan's scientific whaling is to show populations are big enough so commercial whaling can resume.

YOSHIMASA HAYASHI, JAPANESE FISHERIES MINISTER (TRANSLATED): Japan is surrounded by sea and we take protein from marine products and use them sustainably. This is our principle and won't change.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The ICJ decision has hardened support for the continuation of whaling. Japanese politicians now see it as a nationalist cause.

KATSUYA OGAWA, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF JAPAN (TRANSLATED): We cannot take a weak attitude and end the traditions of research whaling. Let's unite and fight in order to protect whaling culture and its food traditions.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Japanese will not send out their whaling fleets to the south this year, but will wait until they can redesign their scientific program. But in the north, the hunt will continue until the end of September.

Matthew Carney, Lateline.