The Australian government is examining its legal options after Japan opted to snub an international ruling that condemned its plan to resume whaling in Antarctic waters.

Last year, the International Court of Justice ruled Japan’s whaling program was not scientific research, as it claimed, and ordered it to revoke scientific permits for the cull.

But the Japanese government has now told the UN the court’s jurisdiction will not apply to any “research on, or conservation, management or exploitation of, living resources of the sea”.

The ICJ case, brought by Australia, appeared to curb Japan’s whaling ambitions but Tokyo unveiled a revised whaling plan, known as Newrep-A, earlier this year.

The new plan stipulates 333 minke whales will be killed each year between 2015 and 2027, about one-third of what it previously targeted.

An expert panel for the International Whaling Commission, which banned commercial whale slaughter in 1986 but exempted killing for scientific research, concluded Japan’s new plan had no basis in science.

Japan now appears set to unilaterally resume Antarctic whaling later this year, after suspending the practice in 2014.

Australia’s environment minister, Greg Hunt, said the government met Japanese counterparts to discuss the bypassing of the ICJ judgment.

“Australia has successfully brought action in the International Court of Justice to stop Japan’s whaling program,” Hunt said. “Japan has previously said it would abide by the ruling. We are taking legal advice on the implications of Japan’s actions.

“We are disappointed by Japan’s decision and we hope that Japan does not undertake so-called ‘scientific’ whaling this [southern] summer in the Southern Ocean.”

Hunt said Australia remained staunchly opposed to whaling and pointed to various scientific techniques, such as the removing of small amounts of live whale tissue for analysis, that negate the need to kill whales in order to study them.

The popularity of whale meat as food has declined sharply in Japan in recent years. But the practice remains culturally important to many Japanese and the meat of the cetaceans was presented to tourists at a major food festival that ended last week.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society said Japan’s snub of the ICJ was a “wake-up call” to other nations.

“Countries should not be allowed to pick and choose which bits of international law they are bound by,” said Darren Kindleysides, director of the conservation group. “This is a deeply cynical move showing utter contempt for the rule of international law.

“Japan’s Antarctic whaling has failed the test of international law, and the test of science, yet the hunt could resume within weeks. The Australian government must once again stand up to Japan.”