We have studied the formation of Ti-nanodots (NDs) by remote H₂ plasma (H₂-RP) exposure and investigated how the embedding of Ti-NDs affects the resistive switching properties of Si-rich oxides (SiO_x) because it is expected that NDs will trigger the formation of the conductive filament path in SiO_x. Ti-NDs with an areal density as high as 10¹¹ cm^-2 were fabricated by exposing a Ge/Ti stacked layer to the H₂-RP without external heating, and changes in the chemical structure of Ge/Ti stacked layer with the Ti-NDs formation were evaluated by using hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HAXPES) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Resistive switching behaviors of SiO_x with Ti-NDs were measured from current-voltage curves and compared to the results obtained from samples of SiO_x with a Ti thin layer.