Australia 'disappointed' by Japan whaling restart, PM Turnbull says

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said his country is "very disappointed" by Japan's decision to resume whaling in the Antarctic.

He made the comments after arriving in Tokyo for his first visit to North Asia since becoming leader of Australia.

He has vowed to raise the issue with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, during bilateral trade talks.

He is also expected to discuss the situation in the South China Sea and defence cooperation.

Japan announced this month that a whaling fleet set sail for the Antarctic after a one-year pause. It sparked a formal protest by 33 countries including Australia and New Zealand.

"Australia is very disappointed that Japan has resumed whaling in the Southern Ocean this year," Turnbull said in Tokyo reports said.

Japan is Australia's second biggest trading partner after China, and as such Mr Turnbull will be keen to keep relations cordial.

Essentially a trade trip, a possible multi-billion dollar deal for Japan to supply the Australian Navy with submarines is on the table.

However, on Friday he reiterated a pledge to raise whaling with Mr Abe saying as "good friends" the two sides "should be upfront and frank about our differences of opinion, put them on the table and deal with them, seek to resolve them".

In 2014, Australia won a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ruled that Japan's Antarctic whaling programme was illegal.

Japan says its whaling is carried out under the scientific research whaling exemption to the International Whaling Commission's whaling moratorium. But the ICJ ruled that Japan's Antarctic hunt programme was insufficiently scientific to count, prompting Tokyo to suspend that hunt for a year.
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Japan has since brought in a new, smaller Antarctic "research" whaling programme, but critics say it is still illegal, and Australia has not ruled out resuming legal action.