TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan plans to invest over 20 trillion yen ($134 billion) in the five years from fiscal 2026 to enhance the country's resilience to natural disasters such as a Nankai Trough megaquake, a new draft plan showed Tuesday.

The planned spending by governments and businesses to expedite the improvement of aging infrastructure and prepare for floods and megaquakes marks an increase from around 15 trillion yen for fiscal 2021 to 2025, reflecting rising prices and construction costs. The government plans to approve the plan in June.

"We must steadily advance measures to mitigate damage," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a meeting of the national resilience promotion headquarters, noting the potential impact of the megaquake and growing public anxiety over aging infrastructure.

A projection released Monday showed a Nankai Trough megaquake in the Pacific could kill up to 298,000 people, while decayed underground sewage pipes created a sinkhole in Yashio in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, swallowing a truck and its driver earlier this year.

After a powerful earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day in 2024 resulted in a prolonged interruption of water supply, the government also plans to make 34 percent of water and sewer pipes quake-resistant by fiscal 2030, up from 15 percent in fiscal 2023.

Of the around 92,000 road bridges managed by the central and local governments that require urgent or early repairs, 80 percent will be fixed by fiscal 2030, up from 55 percent by fiscal 2023.