Japan seeks revival as a semiconductor powerhouse

THERE was a feeling of national pride in Japan as the biggest participants in the semiconductor industry – from ASML to Applied Materials to Lam Research – gathered on the northern island of Hokkaido last week, when construction for the country’s new chip plant kicked off. 

In front of the gathered guests, Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura boasted that Chitose, a city of less than 100,000 people where the plant for newly formed joint venture Rapidus will be built, had “the potential to overtake Silicon Valley”. 

Such claims might just be typical grandstanding for a groundbreaking ceremony, but there is no question about the stakes in Japan’s five trillion yen (S$46.2 billion) experiment to revive itself as a semiconductor powerhouse. Success or failure will have significant ramifications not only for Japan, but also for the US and other allies looking to reshape the global chip supply chain amid rising tensions with China.