Some Japanese supply chain manufacturers have resumed work after the earthquake, but the scope of Toyota shutdown will be further expanded.

Factories near the quake zone were temporarily suspended by Japanese companies after a magnitude 7.4 Earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in northeastern Japan on Wednesday night.

But power has been restored to much of northeastern Japan on Friday, and factories at some manufacturing companies have resumed work. However, Toyota's shutdown will expand next week because of a supply chain shutdown for upstream parts makers.

Renesas Electronics still shuts down Toyota stops production on a large scale next week

Toyota has suspended operations at three plants after the Earthquake incident. Next week, Toyota's shutdown will be further expanded.

Toyota said it would stop production at 18 of its 11 factories in Japan from Monday to Wednesday because of a shortage of parts from its suppliers caused by Earthquake. Toyota will lose production of about 20, 000 vehicles as a result.

Upstream suppliers affecting Toyota's production capacity may include Japan Denso, a well-known auto parts company. Production at the company's Fukushima plant was temporarily suspended after being damaged, but on Thursday night, the company said it was restarting most production.

Another upstream manufacturer that affects Toyota may be Renesa Electronics. Renesas said on Earthquake that two of its factories in northeastern Japan had been shut down and one plant had been partially shut down. On Friday, the company updated its announcement that the three factories remained closed. Renesas is the third largest automotive chip company in the world, and nearly 1/3 of the world's automotive microcontroller chips are produced by Renesas.

Murata Manufacturing Institute and Sony are gradually resuming production.

Murata, the world's largest maker of ceramic capacitors, said two of its four shutdown plants resumed production on Friday, while the other two were still unable to resume work.

The company revealed that a fire broke out in one of its factories producing patch inductors, resulting in equipment damage. The company is currently dispatching inventory shipments.

Murata Studio is an upstream supplier to a number of large smartphone companies, including Apple.

A Sony spokesman said the company is gradually resuming production at three of its factories in the Earthquake disaster area.

The spokesman revealed that the equipment at a laser diode factory in Miyagi prefecture was partially damaged, but the impact on production was limited.