The Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported the new facility will make DRAM chips with production set to begin in 2024.

COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home demand for electronic devices is causing shortages of non-memory chips that has forced some manufacturers, such as automakers and smartphone makers, to curtail production.

That has also reduced sales of DRAM memory chips, but some industry watchers expect demand to rebound helped by an expansion of data centres.

Meanwhile Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing announced plans last week to build a plant in Japan, that media reports said may be partly paid for by the Japanese government.

Japan wants to lure chipmakers to the country to ensure its companies have ready access to supplies of semiconductors necessary to keep its economy competitive.

Micron, which also produces slower, but cheaper, NAND memory chips for the data storage market, makes 300-millimetre DRAM semiconductors at its plant in Hiroshima where it has a research and development facility.