In the context of tension between the West and China, and given the desire of the allies to USA to suppress the technological dependency with Beijing due to the excessive restrictions imposed, Japan and the US have signed this Friday a joint declaration to research and develop advanced chips and other technologies in unison.
This is an unprecedented agreement and seen as a successful path between both parties that seeks tighten ties between the research and development centers of both countries. to seal this technological cooperation They have met Yasutoshi NishimuraMinister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and gina raimondo, US Secretary of Commerce. Prior to this meeting, Raimondo met on Thursday in Washington with Wang WentaoMinister of Commerce of China, where they exchanged views on trade, investment and export policies.
In addition to reduce your exposure to Chinese supply chainsit is intended to expand the manufacture of chips to ensure access to advanced components which are considered essential for world economic growth.
In this regard, Japan has set a new chip maker, rapiduswhich has been working with IBM on the development of advanced logic semiconductors and offering subsidies to the US memory maker Micron Technologythus allowing the expansion of production.
However, the links between the two countries are not only focused on semiconductors, but also on other advances such as artificial intelligence and technology quantum.
The meeting takes place after the G7 leaders agreed in Hiroshima reduce your exposure to China and thus curb its economic limitations. In fact, the Netherlands also agreed equalize US export controlslimiting the sale of some chip-making tools in China.
The integrated circuit market
Between the US, China, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands, rather deep and fragile relationships of dependency and competition, although without a doubt the country that is gaining the greatest prominence in the semiconductor industry is Japan. thanks to your company Tokyo Electron has managed to increase production and billing considerably.
Its photoresist wafer coating and lithography equipment works in conjunction with extreme ultraviolet (EVU) photolithography machines that produces ASML and currently only have TSMC, samsung and Intel. That is why ASML has the effective monopoly of such technology.
At the end of March 2023, Nishimura confirmed the ban on sale to china of 23 categories of equipment involved in the manufacture of advanced semiconductors. The measure, which will come into force next July, represents the consolidation of Japan’s competitiveness and the country’s alliance with the US and, in turn, ties with Taiwan, South Korea and Europe. To get it, Tokyo to limit China’s planned buildup of strategic technologies.
In this context, the G7 summit allowed the announcement by Japan, from the hands of its prime minister, Fumio Kishida, of a formal invitation to Intel and TSMC to invest in your country. For now, Micron has already confirmed that it will invest 3,700 million dollars at its Hiroshima plant to equip it with UVE lithography machines, positioning it as the benchmark semiconductor facility in the country.
Micron is currently the largest US memory chip maker, competing closely against the South Koreans. SK Hynix and Samsung. Since neither Japan nor any other country can develop their own UVE lithography equipment in the short term, the Japanese government has chosen to attract foreign investment of enormous added value.
China’s response has not been long in coming, and it assures that it will launch a new economic strategy to stop this transformation of the economy that seriously harms it.
