Japan's whalers expect to return to the Antarctic, despite losing an International Court of Justice case brought against them by Australia banning their current hunt.

Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research wants to go back to the Southern Ocean for a continuing "research program" after missing next summer, a court document filed in the United States says.

A confrontation between Japanese whalers and Sea Shepherd activists. Credit:Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd Australia

The new program would comply with the ICJ decision, according to a filing made for the institute to a United States District Court in a case against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Sea Shepherd founder, Paul Watson, said: "They're going to do lethal whaling. They need the meat to send back to pay for it."