Updated: NEC and Toshiba assess quake damage as Sony shuts six plants

Massive Japan earthquake shakes tech giants

Japan's biggest PC manufacturer, NEC, is carrying out checks on all its manufacturing facilities to see whether they have been affected by Friday's devastating earthquake. Meanwhile electronics giant Sony has suspended production at six plants.

North-east Japan was thrown into turmoil by a violent earthquake at 2.46pm local time (5.46am GMT), with major tremors felt in Tokyo and neighbouring towns.

The earthquake, the biggest in 140 years at 8.9 on the Richter scale, caused all mobile phone networks and most landlines to go down. The phones were still down in Tokyo at 10.30am on Friday morning, nearly five hours after the quake struck.

The Sony facilities affected by the disaster are all in the north east of the country, close to the quake's epicentre. They manufacture Blu-ray parts, Li-Ion batteries and optical disks.

A report on the Akihabara News web site on Sunday said the ground floor of a Sony plant located in the Miyagi prefecture was completely flooded by the tsunami.

Meanwhile, according to Akihabara, Fujitsu has reported some minor damage and power outages at its Iwate plant, which manufactures semiconductors, while Toshiba is assessing damage to its Iwata facility, which is responsible for memory production.

According to the Financial Times, printer manufacturer Canon has reported no damage affecting production.