Koito Manufacturing Co. will set up a plant in Saga Prefecture to make automobile lights to accommodate planned production boosts in Kyushu by Toyota Motor Corp. and other carmakers, company officials said Tuesday.
It will be the first domestic factory built by Tokyo-based Koito in about 20 years.
The move follows in the footsteps of an increasing number of manufacturers redirecting their capital investments back home, the officials said.
With Toyota, Daihatsu Motor Co. and other automakers intending to boost output in Kyushu, Koito estimates that annual car assembly in the region will more than double to about 2 million vehicles.
Koito will invest 10 billion yen to buy about 80,000 sq. meters of land in the city of Saga and build a plant that will go online in October 2006, the officials said.
The facility will produce 1 million sets of headlights and taillights in 2009, with estimated sales of 40 billion yen, they said.
Koito, which operates four factories in Shizuoka Prefecture, said it chose Saga for the new plant because it is less earthquake-prone than central Japan and transportation costs will be lower, they said.