According to a recent report by the Asahi Shimbun, Toshiba and US SanDisk plan to build a new NAND flash memory plant, which is likely to be located in Kitakami, Iwate prefecture, in Japan. Toshiba and Sandisk have planned an investment of 600 billion Yen (US$5.27 billion; US$1 = 113.9 Yen) in this new facility, which will be equally shared by both companies. The new facility is expected to start production in fiscal 2008, which ends in March 2009. Toshiba has not yet confirmed the news report.