A new adviser to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says a stimulus plan being drafted now should be more than double the size expected by investors if it is to prevent mass job losses and thousands of suicides.

Yoichi Takahashi, one of Suga’s six new economic advisers, says the government needs to spend ¥40 trillion ($384 billion) in its third extra budget to stop a surge in unemployment and prevent the suffering that would come with it. A more modest aid package of ¥10 to ¥15 trillion is what bond traders are forecasting now.

"The number may surprise people but, theoretically speaking, it’s needed,” said Takahashi, a professor of economics at Tokyo’s Kaetsu University, in an interview this week.