Tokyo, July 29 (Jiji Press)--The outlook for factory operations remained unclear in the Kyushu southwestern Japan region Wednesday after a powerful earthquake hit the region's Kumamoto Prefecture the previous day. In Kumamoto, a semiconductor industry hub, chipmakers halted the operations of their plants to check whether there was any damage to their facilities from the temblor, which recorded a seismic intensity of up to 7 in the prefecture, the highest level on the Japanese scale. Toyota Motor Corp. group companies resumed operations at some facilities in Kyushu, but they soon stopped the operations. The extent of damage to parts makers and other members of supply chains remains largely unknown. It may take time to resume manufacturing activities in Kyushu. On Wednesday morning, Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc. resumed operations at three plants in Fukuoka Prefecture, which neighbors Kumamoto. But the operations were halted again in the afternoon. The unit of Toyota Motor Corp. will keep the plants' operations halted at least until the end of July on Friday. It does not know whether it can resume the operations at the start of August. Also within the Toyota group, Daihatsu Motor Kyushu Co. under Daihatsu Motor Co. stopped its plant in Oita Prefecture, which also neighbors Kumamoto, after a brief resumption. Meanwhile, its plant in Fukuoka remained halted. Honda Motor Co. decided to extend the suspension of its Kumamoto factory in the town of Ozu until the end of July from Wednesday afternoon. Nissan Motor Co. decided to stop operating two plants in Fukuoka on Thursday and Friday. In the chip industry, Renesas Electronics Corp. began checking its suspended Kawashiri and Nishiki plants in Kumamoto. The company said it sees no problem with air conditioning or power supply while finding some cracks on walls and water leaks. A Sony Group Corp. chip subsidiary is confirming whether there is any damage to its Kumamoto Technology Center. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. halted the operations at two chip plants in Kumamoto, while Tokyo Electron Ltd. is conducting safety inspections at its Koshi and Ozu plants in the same prefecture. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest chip foundry, is conducting a detailed inspection of its Kumamoto plant after confirming its safety. Construction work was partially halted at the second plant under construction. Nippon Paper Industries Co., whose chimney at the Yatsushiro plant in the prefecture was damaged, has not been able to determine the detailed extent of damage to equipment and other facilities. Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corp. reported broken windows at its Kumamoto plant, saying that it does not know when to resume operations there. Telecommunications companies NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp., Rakuten Mobile Inc. and SoftBank Corp. said that outages in their call and data services continued in some areas in Kumamoto. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]