TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan will hand out more subsidies for electric-vehicle battery production, pledging as much as $2.4 billion in support for related projects by Toyota Motor and other major companies, as it seeks to strengthen its battery supply chain.

The government will support 12 projects for storage batteries or those for their parts, materials or production equipment by up to 350 billion yen ($2.44 billion), Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito told reporters.

"We hope that these efforts will strengthen Japan's storage battery supply chain and the storage battery industry's competitiveness," Saito said.

The move will help expand the country's production capacity for storage batteries by around 50% to 120 gigawatt-hours (GWh), from 80 GWh currently, Japanese media reported earlier on Friday.

The government backing included support for investments by Toyota, Nissan Motor, and joint projects that Panasonic Holdings' energy unit would run with automakers Subaru and Mazda, respectively, Saito said.

The latest support comes after the government pledged nearly $1 billion in subsidies for storage battery production in June last year.

Toyota would invest a total of 250 billion yen in two subsidiaries to build battery plants in Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.

However, a Toyota spokesperson said the automaker has not made any announcement regarding such projects, adding it has been making various efforts to increase the production capacity of EV batteries.

Nissan said in a statement it had received certification from the government for a plan to produce lithium-iron-phosphate batteries.

The automaker aimed to install such batteries in mini-vehicles from the 2028 business year, targeting a domestic production capacity 5 GWh for which it would get up to 55.5 billion yen in support, it said.

Panasonic said there was nothing it could say beyond previously-made announcements, while Subaru and Mazda did not reply to comment requests.

Panasonic's energy unit, which also makes batteries for Tesla, previously signed an automotive battery supply agreement with Mazda and another agreement with Subaru.

($1 = 143.1600 yen)