80% of Sony’s affected Japan plants back online

Sony is making good progress on restoring access to several of its electronics plants affected by the Japanese earthquake.

As of the end of March, the company said eight of its 10 affected plants are back online. All facilities had been completely shut down after the natural disaster.

Additionally, five other sites with less damage have also restored operations.

The temporary shutdown of some, and continued shutdown of others, will greatly affect the company’s production for the rest of the year. There have been reports that its anticipated NGP, the successor to the handheld PSP game system, will not be able to meet a previously promised end-of-2011 release date.

Of the two plants that are still offline, one is scheduled to resume operations by the end of this month. The last one, a chemical plant, remains under observation and cleaning. No plans have been announced for when that plant will be in working order again.

All of this is just a small part of Sony’s manufacturing facilities throughout all of Japan, so the impact on company-wide operations won’t be catastrophic.