Japan’s latest whaling proposal to catch and kill 333 minke whales has met resistance at the International Whaling Commission, which has asked for more information.

The “scientific” whaling program has been cut back from 900 to 333 in the latest proposal, but the IWC panel continues to query whether whales need to die to be studied.

The panel said it had not been given enough information in the Japanese plan to determine whether it was necessary to kill whales to achieve its objectives, and “therefore, the current proposal does not demonstrate the need for lethal sampling to achieve those objectives”.

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It said Japan must provide more analysis and arguments.

Their comments were a fresh setback for Japan, whose “scientific” whaling program was judged illegal last year by the International Court of Justice after years of criticism from anti-whaling nations and campaigners.

The International Court of Justice – known as the highest court in the world – ruled in March last year that Tokyo was abusing a scientific exemption set out in the 1986 international moratorium on whaling.

It concluded that it was carrying out a commercial hunt under a veneer of science.

After that ruling, Japan said it would not hunt during this winter’s Antarctic season but has since expressed its intention to resume “research whaling” in 2015-16.

– with AAP