Several major Japanese microchip makers have told staff to give up their New Year holidays to meet a surge in demand resulting from spirited sales of digital home appliances, according to company officials.
Toshiba Corp., NEC Electronics Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., Sony Corp., Elpida Memory Inc. and Renesas Technology Corp. are asking staff to give up part or all of their time off to meet the increased demand for such goods as DVD recorders, digital cameras and cell phones.
Toshiba has decided to have employees at its Yokkaichi factory in Mie Prefecture forfeit all of their holidays, while Renesas, the joint venture between Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., will cut holidays by an average 20 percent.
Consequently, the numbers of holidays at Renesas' factories will vary from four to seven days, Renesas officials said.
"Although we do not want to suspend operations at some factories, we cannot help doing so due to the need to get facilities inspected or improved," a company spokesman said.
In addition to the full-capacity use of the Yokkaichi factory, Toshiba plans to limit operational halts at its Oita plant to two days, Toshiba officials said. The Oita factory manufactures system large-scale integrated circuits.