Asia Tech Wire (Sep 6) -- The Japanese government will provide subsidies of up to 347.9 billion yen to Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor and other companies for the production of batteries for electric vehicles.

Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saitō made the announcement at a press conference after a cabinet meeting on Friday.

The subsidy amount is about one-third of the companies' total investment of 1.007 trillion yen.

The Japanese government plans to increase domestic battery production capacity by 1.5 times through this subsidy.