Toyota suffers minor quake damage

TOKYO (Reuters) - An assembler of cars for Toyota Motor Corp suffered minor damage at a factory in a powerful earthquake in northern Japan on Saturday, while Fujitsu Ltd and Sony Corp halted production lines in the region for checks.

The focus of the magnitude 7.0 tremor was 10 km (6 miles) underground in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, north of Tokyo. It struck at 8:43 a.m. (7:43 p.m. EDT), killing two people and triggering landslides.

The quake knocked over some equipment and auto bodies at a factory operated by Kanto Auto Works Ltd in Iwate, according to a spokesman at the company, which assembles the Corolla and other models for Toyota.

The damage appears to be minor and the firm is now checking to see if it can operate as usual on Monday, the spokesman said.

A spokesman for Toyota said that factories operated by group companies in Miyagi did not suffer any damage.

Sony has halted production at a handful of factories in the region including sites making semiconductor lasers, magnetic tape and IC cards, but has not suffered any damage to people or equipment.

A spokesman at Fujitsu said it had also halted production lines at its semiconductor factory in Iwate to check equipment for damage.

Miyagi and Iwate are home to dozens of large factories operated by auto and electronics makers.

Other major producers in the region include Keihin Corp, a car parts maker whose top shareholder is Honda Motor Co, and electronics components maker Alps Electric Co. Keihin and Alps could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo, Kentaro Hamada and Nathan Layne; Editing by Louise Heavens)