The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will ask for more public money to pay compensation, a report said Friday, taking its total cash handouts to an eye-watering $38 billion.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) will go cap-in-hand to a government-backed fund asking for further help to meet payout demands that continue to swell two years after the tsunami-sparked crisis, the Nikkei daily reported.

TEPCO will request additional aid to the tune of more than 600 billion yen ($5.9 billion) as early as Friday, the daily said.

If approved, the government's total aid to TEPCO thus far would be around 3.9 trillion yen ($38 billion). The figure is a little under the equivalent of one percent of Japan's GDP.

The utility has found itself in need of the money because of growing compensation claims from those forced to leave their homes, or whose businesses were affected by the meltdowns at Fukushima in March 2011.

The Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund was established to shoulder the expense of compensation, partly as a way of stopping TEPCO from going bankrupt. TEPCO is ultimately responsible for repaying the money.

TEPCO and the government-backed fund will jointly ask the minister of economy and trade in early June to approve the additional aid, which may be endorsed later next month, the Nikkei said.

A company spokesman said it was "considering such a request but we have yet to submit any".

Last month the embattled utility at the centre of the worst nuclear accident in a generation said its year-to-March shortfall came in at 685.3 billion yen, blaming the massive loss on growing compensation liabilities.

The utility is facing multiple class action suits as critics say company executives failed to take preventative measures despite knowing in 2008 that the plant was vulnerable to a tsunami higher than 15 metres (50 feet).

A 9.0-magnitude tremor struck off Japan's northeast coast on March 11, 2011, triggering monster waves that swamped the Fukushima plant's cooling systems, sparking reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from around the plant, with many still unable to return to their homes. Scientists say some areas may have to be permanently abandoned.

Although the natural disaster killed more than 18,000 people, the nuclear crisis is not officially recorded as having directly cost any lives.

In April, the Fukushima plant suffered a series of radioactive water leaks, the latest in an increasingly long line of mishaps to rattle public confidence.

Shares in TEPCO, the bulk of which are held on behalf of the government following a state bailout, were up 2.25 percent at 635 yen by lunchtime in Tokyo.