Research and development outlays planned by nine major firms, including Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd., for the year to March 2005 total 2.98 trillion yen (27.1 billion dollars), up 6.5 percent on the year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

Matsushita, best known for its Panasonic and National brands, was allocating 640 billion yen for research and development, up 10.5 percent and the highest amount among the nine firms, the newspaper said.

The additional spending was mainly being targeted at microchips for next-generation audio-visual equipment, as well as such growth sectors as Internet-ready home appliances and fuel cells, it said.

Sanyo Electric Co. planned to increase raise its research and development spending by 17.4 percent to 147 billion yen on expectations that digital products would continue to sell well this fiscal year, the newspaper said.

The firm would bolster such research projects as expanding the capacity of lithium-ion batteries used in digital cameras and cellular phones. Another priority would be bringing to market its next-generation organic electro-luminescence display, the Nihon Keizai said.

Hitachi and Fujitsu Ltd. were also both hiking their research and development spending, reversing past expenditure declines, the newspaper said.

Hitachi was seeking to develop such new business areas as advanced materials, it added.

Total planned capital spending for the nine firms was expected to rise 16.5 percent to 2.32 trillion yen, the Nihon Keizai said.

Sony Corp. has earmarked 410 billion yen, an increase of 8.4 percent, and Toshiba Corp. was budgeting 306 billion yen, up 3.4 percent, the newspaper said.

Nearly half of the outlays for both firms would go toward microchip operations, it said.

Sharp Corp., on the other hand, planned to reduce capital spending by 2.2 percent to 220 billion yen, but would continue to maintain high investment levels to boost production of electronic devices, it said.

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