Japan will upgrade its cruise missiles and research hypersonic weapons as it seeks to significantly increase military spending to counter what Tokyo sees as the rising threat from China.The defence ministry on Wednesday made a record ￥5.6tn ($40bn) budget request for the year to March 2024, compared with ￥5.4tn in planned spending for the current fiscal year.

But people with knowledge of internal ministerial discussions said the final budget would top at least ￥6tn after the inclusion of additional requests for military equipment to be made at the end of 2022, when Japan will release a new national security strategy and defence guidelines. This would make the figure one of the biggest increases in the country’s military spending in the postwar period.

Tokyo has been steadily increasing its defence budget for the past decade, but spending has remained equivalent to about 1 per cent of gross domestic product, which is low by global standards.