For the staff of Toshiba’s Yokkaichi works, sitting at home on reduced pay for several days every month, there is little evidence of a recovery in the world economy.

The Yokkaichi plant, near Nagoya in the heart of Japan, is also close to the heart of the global technology industry, producing more than a third of the world’s flash memory chips, a type of chip used in a range of consumer electronics from digital cameras to mobile phones.