About a dozen members of the environmental group presented a letter addressed to Prime Minister Taro Aso asking that Japan stop the "political prosecution" of the two and end whaling in a designated ocean sanctuary. They briefly gathered for a quiet protest in front of a parliament building before addressing reporters.

Japan has maintained its whaling program despite heavy criticism from abroad. The government kills about 1,000 whales a year under a whaling program allowed by international rules, and sells the meat as food.

The Greenpeace group, made up of executive directors from its offices in the U.S., Brazil, Australia and Japan, emphasized Tokyo's status as a global role model.

"Japan is one of the seven largest economies in the world, and with power comes responsibility," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil.

In April, Greenpeace members Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, removed a box containing whale meat from a postal company warehouse in Aomori, northern Japan. The meat was presented to the government as evidence that workers on government-funded whale hunts were stealing meat for their own consumption and profit.

The two were arrested by police in June for theft and illegally breaking and entering the warehouse, then later released on bail. Authorities also searched Greenpeace's office in Tokyo.

Greenpeace says the two are banned from direct contact with the group and are under police surveillance ahead of their trial, expected early next year.

The Japanese have hunted whales for centuries, and whale meat was widely eaten in the lean years after World War II. The meat, however, has plunged in popularity in today's prosperous Japan and, while still on the menu in a few upscale Tokyo restaurants, is only eaten regularly in small coastal whaling communities.