Some Japanese manufacturers suspended production in Thailand Wednesday after a bloodless military coup took place overnight.

Nissan Motor Co. closed two factories in Samutprakarn Province near Bangkok, and Honda Motor Co. decided to shut down its plant in Ayutthaya Province.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said the company ordered its 21 group companies in Thailand to stop operations, at least for the day.

Other major companies, including Hitachi Ltd., Kao Corp., Sony Corp. and NEC Corp., decided to temporarily halt output or sales operations.

Some 1,200 Japanese companies are active in Thailand. Of the some 36,000 Japanese living there, 27,000 are in Bangkok, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The military staged the coup Tuesday night by surrounding the offices of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with tanks, taking control of television stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king.

Japanese companies said they have received no word of any harm coming to their employees in Thailand.

Some companies, including JFE Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Chemical Co., said they have decided to stop sending employees to Thailand on business for the time being.

Toyota Motor Corp. ordered its roughly 9,000 employees in Thailand to stay home in the morning but called them to work later in the day, a Toyota official said.

Sanyo Electric Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Co. said they have judged that the coup will have no major negative impact on business and decided to operate as usual.