According to Kyodo News on February 6, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced on the 6th that it will provide subsidies for semiconductor giants Kioxia Holdings and Western Digital to mass-produce cutting-edge memory semiconductors at their factories in Mie and Iwate prefectures, up to about 243 billion yen (about 11.8 billion yuan). Semiconductors are positioned as strategic materials. Japan's move is aimed at expanding its semiconductor system and strengthening its economic security.
Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito pointed out at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting that the memory semiconductor market "is expected to grow significantly in the future." He stressed that Japan-U.S. cooperation in the production of cutting-edge products is also a "project of great significance" from the perspective of economic security.
According to the report, Kioxia will invest a total of about 728.8 billion yen to mass-produce the latest models of "3D flash memory" for data recording, which are expected to increase demand for artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. Up to one third of the investment will be financed through subsidies. Some of the subsidies were finalized in 2022, but the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has re-approved the subsidy due to the change to a higher-performance product type.
According to the report, Kioxia's predecessor was Toshiba's semiconductor division.