Greenpeace and the alike claim that Japan has been whaling in the Australian Whale Sanctuary. Is this area that they're referring to really the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, where Australia only has a partial claim, and scientific whaling is legal? Also, the refuelling by the Oriental Bluebird is located south of the southern 60th parallel, where there are no territorial claims.
Greenpeace continues to hide the fact that only commercial whaling (i.e. what Norway is doing) is banned from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, but scientific whaling is allowed.
I think the Japanese put a lot of effort into their research. Whale meat consumption is dropping in Japan, but they still continue to kill around the same number of whales, so I doubt selling of the meat is their primary focus. Why would they kill more whales if no-one wants to eat them? I think they just need more samples, since aquatic mammals would be more difficult to study than land ones.