TOKYO—Meiji Dairies Corp. said last month it will spend more than $100 million to construct a natural-cheese operation that will have an annual output capacity of 20,000 tons, one of the largest in Japan.

The plant is to be built on a plot of land covering about 132,000 sq. meters in Hokkaido.

Construction will begin in spring 2006 and operations are expected to kick off at the end of 2007. When the facility is operational, the company’s natural-cheese production will increase six-fold.