Japan's big chipmakers, confronted by one of the industry's worst slumps, are turning to a time-honoured means in Japanese manufacturing of paring output to match sagging demand: longer summer holidays at their plants.

Fujitsu and NEC, two of Japan's five chipmaking conglomerates, yesterday became the latest to announce plans for temporary shutdowns or production cutbacks at some of their semiconductor facilities.

Toshiba, Japan's biggest chipmaker, and Hitachi have already said they would trim output this summer, while Mitsubishi Electric was still talking with its unions about the matter, a spokesman said.

Fujitsu announced a four week suspension in output of some of its flash memory chips, which are mainly used in mobile phones - one of the hardest-hit sectors in this year's info-tech slump.

It also said it would sharply cut flash memory chip production at its Oregon facility, its only remaining overseas semiconductor plant, beginning today.

"It's not a particularly pretty picture right now," a Fujitsu spokesman said of the market downturn.