Japan plans to put off — for now — a tax hike intended to finance a planned increase in the country's defense spending, a government source has said.

The government will continue to study measures to secure a stable source of revenue as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called for raising defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by fiscal 2027 from the current 1%.

The government will set the general direction of the plan but is likely to forego deciding on a specific tax increase when it compiles the initial budget for fiscal 2023 due in late December, the source said Sunday.