The Japanese government is to pay for a significant part of a second Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) factory in southern Kumamoto Prefecture, leaders of the ruling party’s lawmaker coalition on chips said.
Giving no support would be out of the question after the government pledged to shoulder half the cost of the first Kumamoto plant, said Akira Amari and Yoshihiro Seki, chairman and secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party’s group on semiconductors.
Amari said about one-third of the cost is the norm for these types of projects, and the amount of support for the first was unusually large.
Photo: Bloomberg
The subsidies would be part of Japan’s efforts to revive its domestic chipmaking industry, a sector that is viewed as crucial for growth and economic security, Amari said.
“This is a national strategy,” Amari said in an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday. “We are facing the kind of choice that will set our course over the next decades. Are we going to be a receiver of chips or a provider? Which is better? We have no choice but to take on this challenge, regardless of the outcome.”
Whether or not the government would also pay for half of the second TSMC plant would depend on what type of chips are to be made there and how much of a wider economic impact it can generate in the region, Seki said.
For example, the government would be more supportive if TSMC plans to train many Japanese engineers through its own more technically advanced workers, he said.
“The plant will certainly boost the economy and we will back it,” Seki said in a separate interview on Wednesday in Tokyo. “Around the globe, governments are pouring in support. If Japan alone does not do anything, we will not be able to attract top chip companies from the rest of the world.”
The lawmakers also said they would like to see at least ￥1 trillion (US$7 billion) of chip-related support in an extra budget this year, which would likely be compiled toward the end of the calendar year.
“Investments in the trillions of yen are the global standard when it comes to chips,” Amari said. “We will secure a substantial budget amount.”
While the second TSMC plant has not officially been announced by the company, aid for it could be part of that budget, Seki said.
Money could also go to legacy and power semiconductor production in need of support.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) in June said that the company is in discussions with Japan over subsidies for a second facility, which might be located alongside its current plant in Kumamoto.
Japan plans to invest about ￥10 trillion in semiconductors over the span of a decade, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last year.
So far, about ￥1.76 trillion has been set aside for the nation’s chip and digital strategy that was created in 2021 and revised this year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
Of that total, ￥1.2 trillion is for semiconductors, ￥500 billion for storage batteries and ￥60 billion for software-related initiatives.
Japan is aiming to triple the sales of domestically produced semiconductors to more than ￥15 trillion by 2030.
Key aid pledged so far includes ￥476 billion for the first TSMC plant, set to begin production late next year, and ￥330 billion for Japan’s homegrown semiconductor venture Rapidus Corp in northern Hokkaido.
The TSMC case has justification in that it brings the world’s leading chipmaker to Japan, but the risk is higher for Rapidus, Seki said.
The latter is a brand new start-up that aims to mass produce the most advanced form of chips, uncharted territory for Japan, and the government is planning on providing further support.
“I recognize this is a tough project,” Seki said of Rapidus. “We won’t be able to succeed unless we think that there’s no choice but to succeed.”
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS