Chubu Electric Power Co., operator of the suspended Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, may receive emergency loans worth ¥350 billion from government and private lenders.

State-owned Development Bank of Japan Inc. will offer ¥100 billion this month to the Nagoya-based utility, trade minister Banri Kaieda said Monday at a news briefing.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. plan to provide ¥250 billion, Kyodo News reported, without citing anyone.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan last month ordered Chubu Electric to shut the Hamaoka plant, about 190 km southwest of Tokyo, until the power station can be fortified to withstand a tsunami like the one on March 11 that crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant.

Chubu Electric is under pressure to pay an additional ¥250 billion this year to burn more natural gas at thermal generators to offset declining output from reactors, said spokesman Atsuo Sawaki.

"This measure is aimed at helping Chubu facilitate financing smoothly on the back of the shutdown of the nuclear plant," Kaieda told reporters in Tokyo. "We, the government, should also be able help Chubu secure stable liquefied natural gas supplies," he said, without elaborating.

The March earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant and triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, raising concern that nuclear plants in Japan aren't adequately protected from natural disasters. Kan has said Chubu's Hamaoka station should be offline until measures, including building of a seawall, are implemented.

Sawaki of Chubu confirmed the state bank's proposed ¥100 billion loans, while checking the ¥250 billion in credit from Japan's three biggest private banks. Shinya Matsumoto, a spokesman for Mitsubishi UFJ, and Masako Shiono of Mizuho, declined comment on specific loan contracts.