The government will earmark about ¥1.6 trillion for construction spending by the fiscal year that ends in March 2028, Kyodo said, citing an unnamed person involved with the process.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had said as recently as Saturday that issuing debt to pay for military spending was “impossible as a responsible option for the future”.

Kishida has told his government to earmark ¥43 trillion for defence over the next five years; that would raise annual defence spending to the equivalent of about 2% of Japan’s gross domestic product.

But the industrial world’s most indebted government is struggling to scrape together funding sources.

Given its tattered public finances, Japanese government officials have publicly shrugged off the possibility of fresh government debt issuance, while pledging to streamline spending, raise taxes and tap non-tax revenue.

However, some ruling party lawmakers have called for issuing construction bonds to pay for portions of the larger defence budget.