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The country is a vital hub for everything from flash memory chips to batteries to the touch-screen overlay glass used in the Apple Inc. chief executive officer’s products.

Japan is a hub for consumer-electronics parts such as flash memory, which stores songs and photos in portable devices; batteries and touch-screen overlay glass that’s used in Apple products, IHS ISuppli said this month.

They include Nand flash-memory chips from Toshiba Corp.; dynamic random-access memory from Elpida Memory Inc.; an electronic compass from AKM Semiconductor Inc.; the touch-screen overlay glass, probably from Asahi Glass Co.; and the system battery from Apple Japan Inc. Apple, the world’s most valuable technology company, has been grappling with supply shortages for the iPad 2 since it went on sale in the U.S. on March 11.