The government will support 12 projects for storage batteries and those for their parts, materials and production equipment by up to ¥350 billion, Ken Sato, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, reported.


This bid could help expand the country's production capacity for storage batteries by around 50 percent to 120 gigawatt-hours, from the current 80 GWh. The government backing includes support for investments by Toyota, Nissan Motor, and joint projects of Panasonic Holdings' energy unit with automakers Subaru and Mazda Motor.