That would be a jump from the current five-year defence plan for spending ¥27.5 trillion, stoking worry about worsening one of the industrial world’s worst debt burdens, which amounts to twice the size of Japan’s annual economic output.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told key ministers on Monday to work on a plan to lift defence spending to an amount equivalent to 2% of gross domestic product within five years, from 1% now, as Japan faces an increasingly assertive China.

The key ministers – finance minister Shunichi Suzuki and defence minister Yasukazu Hamada – are expected to meet again with Kishida this month to iron out differences over the spending plan.

Defence authorities had informally floated an idea of spending in the upper range of ¥40 trillion over five years, while finance bureaucrats had sought spending along the lines of the current five-year plan.