Japan invested 3.9 trillion yen to support the semiconductor industry from 2021 to 2023, a larger proportion of GDP than the United States or Germany.
A report by the Fiscal System Council, an advisory body to the Ministry of Finance, revealed that the Japanese government is investing more intensively in the semiconductor industry than Western countries.
Semiconductor materials are used not only in smartphones and AI applications, but also in many electronic devices such as home appliances. It is also essential for managing social infrastructure systems such as railways, electricity, and water. For this reason, countries are classifying semiconductors as a strategic commodity and devising measures to support the industry and make competition more intense to attract manufacturers.
From the perspective of economic security, Japan has allocated 3.9 trillion yen, equivalent to 0.71% of GDP, to support the semiconductor industry in the supplementary budget over the past three years. The funds include 1.2 trillion yen to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip maker, which has built a factory in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, and a Japanese chip maker in Tokyo that aims to develop the next cutting-edge semiconductor technology This includes 920 billion yen to Lapidus.
The United States allocated 7.1 trillion yen over five years, which is much larger than Japan, but equivalent to 0.21% of gross domestic product (GDP), and proportionally more than tripled Japan’s investment. Germany’s investment amount reached 2.5 trillion yen, or 0.41% of GDP, further highlighting the scale of Japan’s investment in this industry.
In 1989, six Japanese general electronics manufacturers, including NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Fujitsu, ranked among the top 10 in semiconductor sales in the world. However, from the late 1990s to the 2000s, with the rise of Korean manufacturers, they gradually lost competitiveness and many companies began to abandon their businesses.
In 1999, NEC and Hitachi merged their semiconductor memory businesses to form Elpida Memory, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. In 2003, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric established a joint venture called Renesas Technology (currently Renesas Electronics). ). A number of national projects were launched in the 2000s with the aim of developing cutting-edge semiconductor technology through public-private cooperation. However, Japan was unable to regain its former global status.
(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta)
