Toyota supplier Denso mulls domestic expansion in as yen weakens

Denso Corp. is giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a reason to believe his weak-yen policy will eventually boost investment by manufacturers.

The parts maker, Toyota Motor Corp.'s biggest supplier, said it is considering expanding production in Japan. "It's possible to maintain a certain level of domestic production, or even increase the output," Nobuaki Katoh, Denso's president, said in a recent interview.

Denso tends to boost output when and where carmakers do, so a decision to make more parts in Japan would signal that Abe's weak-yen policy is rekindling interest in domestic production. That would start to reverse the prevailing trend since at least 2008 for automakers and suppliers, an industry that employs about one in 11 Japanese.