TECH & CULTURE
The Cutting Edge: Japan’s Global Semiconductor Influence
August 23, 2024
Our increasingly tech-reliant world continues to face the challenges of fragile supply chains strained by war and pandemic, as well as a persistent semiconductor shortage worldwide and a rapidly expanding job market with tragically few professionals to fill it. It’s in response to these challenges that Japan and many partnering nations have sought to join forces. Though Japan’s semiconductor industry is still years behind international competitors, its bold recent investments and reinvigorated global collaborations seem like a long-awaited return to form for a nation once so dominant in the industry.
Japan’s greatest semiconductor ally is undoubtedly the U.S., a fact cemented since the nations met on May 4 to finalize their “Basic Principles on Semiconductor Cooperation”, an outline of joint goals to strengthen the supply chain between them. This agreement has proven the foundation of the countries’ continued mutual support, which in April 2024 saw further reinforcement at the Biden-Kishida summit. In addition to pursuing new human resources for the industry, the two leaders acknowledged the imminent challenge of pushing chip size as low as it can go.
Japan’s greatest semiconductor ally is undoubtedly the U.S., a fact cemented since the nations met on May 4 to finalize their “Basic Principles on Semiconductor Cooperation”, an outline of joint goals to strengthen the supply chain between them. This agreement has proven the foundation of the countries’ continued mutual support, which in April 2024 saw further reinforcement at the Biden-Kishida summit. In addition to pursuing new human resources for the industry, the two leaders acknowledged the imminent challenge of pushing chip size as low as it can go.
But it isn’t the public sector where that type of innovation truly resides. Japan’s major player is semiconductor manufacturer Rapidus, which, while only two years old, has already seen funding from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) to the tune of 330 billion yen, and is already collaborating with industry titans like the U.S.’s IBM and Belgium’s IMEC to make the unprecedented leap from Japan’s current 40 nanometer semiconductor tech to a competitive 2 nanometers by 2025.
Taiwan, Vietnam, and India have also joined Japan’s growing network of semiconductor allies. Taiwan’s TSMC, for example, recently entered the planning stages for a new fab in Kumamoto in 2025. And, though Japan’s semiconductor manufacturers may still be growing, its tenure as the world’s largest semiconductor raw material provider has ensured its presence on a global stage, and as a vital ally for all nations on the cutting edge.
Taiwan, Vietnam, and India have also joined Japan’s growing network of semiconductor allies. Taiwan’s TSMC, for example, recently entered the planning stages for a new fab in Kumamoto in 2025. And, though Japan’s semiconductor manufacturers may still be growing, its tenure as the world’s largest semiconductor raw material provider has ensured its presence on a global stage, and as a vital ally for all nations on the cutting edge.
