Murata plant in Philippines to open in Jan.

Electronics components manufacturing giant Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is all set to start production in the Philippines, a key location for the Japanese firm’s overseas expansion plan for emerging markets.

“We are currently preparing for the start of production in January 2013 with Filipino employees who had finished their training in Japan and in Singapore and are now family members of the Murata Manufacturing Group,” company president Tsuneo Murata said in a speech at the opening of the $350-million plant in the province of Batangas. The plant is occupying more than 200,000 square meters of space in the area.

The facility will operate through Murata’s production subsidiary, Philippine Manufacturing Co., to meet increasing demand for components of smart gadgets and appliances. Ceramic capacitors, which will be produced in the plant, stabilize the power supply circuit of smartphones and laptops, enabling device makers like Apple Inc. to make thinner and smaller yet powerful gadgets.

Murata, which makes a wide range of components for devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones and cameras, as well as home appliances, said the production base in the Philippines would play an important part in Murata’s expanding overseas operations, targeting emerging markets such as the Asean.

The Philippines is Murata’s fourth location in the Asean after Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, but has the largest lot area, the executive said. “We plan to expand our product lines and scale in the future,” Murata said.

Japanese manufacturers are drawn to the Philippines’ young, English-speaking human resources and expanding infrastructure amid the rising yen and increasing labor costs, political changes and floods risks in other hubs like China and Thailand.