For Matsushita Toso, a small auto surface treatment company in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, the shiny black metal parts hanging at its newly introduced line are a sign of the auto industry's growth and recovery from the March 11 disasters.
The company, with less than 60 employees and located just west of the tsunami zone on the Tohoku region coast, is currently producing about a dozen types of body parts for 30,000 of Toyota Motor Corp.'s high-profile Aqua compact hybrid vehicle per month, after it invested some ¥250 million to double the size of its plant in October to attract the automaker's orders.
While the company didn't suffer much direct quake damage, its output was curbed by 60 percent in the first four months after the earthquake, mainly because its client manufacturers were forced to halt production as they were hit by the tsunami and due to the impact of the meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Making such a large investment at the time was a serious risk.