Malcolm Turnbull is being urged to raise the issue of whaling when the prime minister makes his first official visit to Japan.
Mr Turnbull's visit later this month is expected to coincide with the arrival of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, in defiance of last year's ruling at the International Court of Justice that its so-called scientific program should be halted.
The fleet, comprising one mother ship and three other vessels, was set to depart on Tuesday, planning to hunt for hundreds of Minke whales.
The fleet is expected to arrive in its Antarctic hunting grounds within two to three weeks, about the same time Mr Turnbull arrives in Japan for talks with counterpart Shinzo Abe.
The conservation group, Sea Shepherd, said the announcement on Monday by Japan's Fisheries Agency that the hunt would resume after a one-year suspension had brought with it a sense of urgency.
"It's no longer speculation. They will be in the killing grounds within two to three weeks," the group's spokesman Adam Burling told AAP on Tuesday.
"This is a criminal operation and Australia has a moral if not a legal right to halt this.
"We're in the process of potentially ordering Japanese submarines, we're doing trade deals.
"This needs to be brought up with his counterpart and it needs to be in the strongest terms."
It is understood final preparations are underway for Mr Turnbull to travel to Japan at the end of parliamentary sittings in Canberra on December 3, with Japanese media reporting the visit was likely to take place in mid-December.
The talks are expected to focus on the contract to build Australia's next fleet of submarines, defence and trade.
Attorney-General George Brandis told parliament on Monday that Australia was making diplomatic representations at "the highest levels" in a bid to get Japan to change its mind and would consider sending a Customs patrol vessel to the Southern Ocean if talks weren't successful.
The International Court of Justice ruled in March 2014 that the annual expedition was a commercial hunt masquerading as science to skirt an international moratorium.
