Japan's plan to revive its outlawed Antarctic whaling has been dealt a blow with independent experts finding it failed to justify a new hunt.

The Japanese Government had submitted a plan for a revamped "research whaling" program killing a total of nearly 4,000 whales for review by an Expert Panel of the International Whaling Commission.

A minke whale is unloaded at a port in Kushiro in 2013. Credit:AP

This followed an International Court of Justice decision banning the previous program in a case brought by Australia.

But the IWC panel said in a report released on Monday night that Japan failed to provide enough information to determine whether killing more minke whales was necessary to meet the research objectives.