TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese household goods manufacturer on Wednesday said it will boost domestic production of face masks after a government request for help, using public funding aimed at encouraging companies to shift production from China.
Iris Ohyama said government funding will allow it to bolster production capacity at a new factory in Miyagi, northern Japan, to 150 million masks per month from an originally-planned 60 million per month when it starts in June.
The privately-held company, which sells consumer goods ranging from plastic storage boxes to rice cookers, will continue making face masks at 2 factories in China.
But it plans to shift production of non-woven fabric, a key component of face masks, to Japan from China, where prices had recently spiked.
“We are reviewing our supply chain’s dependency on China,” it said in a statement.
Addressing the shortage of face masks is a priority for the Japanese government, which has begun delivering two washable masks to each household.
The website of Japanese electronics firm Sharp <6753.T> crashed on Tuesday after the company started selling face masks online. [L1N2C907P]
(Reporting by Ritsuko Shimizu, editing by Louise Heavens)
