Home electronics manufacturers are accelerating moves to expand production and sales of appliances such as refrigerators in Southeast Asian countries.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has started manufacturing luxury refrigerators in Thailand, while Sharp Corp. unveiled a plan to start operating a new plant in Indonesia earlier than initially planned.

The enhancement of production in the region indicates that Japanese firms now view such countries not only as production bases for low-priced goods with low labor costs, but as attractive markets where an increase in sales can be expected.

Until recently, Mitsubishi Electric developed luxury refrigerators mainly for the Japanese market. However, it has started production of such goods in Thailand for the Thai and Singapore markets.

Mitsubishi has begun production of luxury refrigerators with 630 litres of storage, and other features that cater to the target market--for instance, side-by-side doors through which a large plate 80 centimetres in diameter can be inserted, and door racks that can store three-liter plastic bottles.

The refrigerators are priced at 60,000 baht (US$2,000), about 10 times that of local products sold at bargain prices.

Tadashi Matsumoto, chief of the company’s Shizuoka refrigerator plant, said, “Our Thai plant has enough technological capabilities to produce luxury models.”

Sharp announced last week a goal of doubling its sales in Southeast Asia to 300 billion yen ($3.19 billion) for the business year ending in March 2017.

The company will move forward by several months the start of operations at a factory to produce refrigerators and washing machine in Indonesia, so that production can begin in autumn.

With Toshiba Corp. building an air-conditioner factory in May in Thailand and Panasonic Corp. building plants in India and Vietnam, Japanese firms are boosting their production presence in Southeast Asia.

One reason for this is that the penetration rates for appliances remain relatively low in the region, with the market expected to expand in the near future.

Also, competition between Japanese firms and South Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. is intensifying.

Samsung, which has a Southeast Asian base in Singapore, has been on the offensive recently, with an advertising budget said to total about 1 trillion yen ($10.62 billion) worldwide.

Noboru Fujimoto, an executive managing officer at Sharp, said: “The effects of advertising are great. It’s unthinkable for Japanese companies [to spend so much on advertising].”

The South Korean companies also have released hit products better designed to meet local needs. For instance, they released air conditioners in Indonesia that can drive away mosquitoes using high-frequency waves, and refrigerators in India with doors that can be locked to prevent household employees from stealing food.

Panasonic has consumer research centers in 13 countries whose employees visit ordinary households to see how appliances are used. Through such research, they aim to develop products suitable for Southeast Asian countries.