In order to regain the former semiconductors 50With a leading market share of 3% and not being "stuck" by overseas competitors, Japan has "made a painful determination" to spend $67 billion to attract global advanced semiconductor companies to build factories in Japan, and try to mass-produce 2nm high-end chips to regain the global lead.
On February 21, it was reported by **Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to increase fiscal support for the semiconductor industry to 10 trillion yen (about $67 billion) with the support of the private sector. Another goal for Japan** is to triple sales of domestically produced chips to more than 15 trillion yen (about $108 billion) by 2030. At the same time, Japan launched the Rapidus project, which plans to mass-produce the most advanced 2-nanometer chips in 2027.
So far, in less than three years, Japan has allocated about 4 trillion yen ($26.7 billion) to support the semiconductor industry. TSMC and other semiconductor manufacturers have built factories in Japan, and the construction speed of Japanese wafer fabs is the fastest in the world.
Chip production is of great strategic importance to countries around the world, and advanced semiconductor chips are essential to the modern technology field as the basis for more than a dozen key technologies, including artificial intelligence, ** systems, and electric vehicles.
Countries including Japan** have realized this, with Kazumi Nishikawa, director of economic and security policy at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, saying, "Why do we attach so much importance to chips? Because the stability of the semiconductor ** chain is crucial to the global economy, once the chip ** is interrupted, the economy will collapse".
The market share of Japan's semiconductor industry has increased from 50 in 19883% has dropped sharply to less than 10% in 2019, a failure in the 40 years of rapid technological development. In 2022, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Koichi Hagiuda publicly stated that the decline of Japanese semiconductors has been suppressed and counterattacked by opponents such as the United States, but it is more that Japan has made mistakes in its own strategy and tactics, which has led to the decline of the industry and the frustration of ambitions.
Since the 80s of the 20th century, Japan has been surpassed as a leading player in global semiconductorsIt was decided to divide the revival of the semiconductor industry by 2030 into three phases: (1) Accelerate the construction of infrastructure for semiconductor production. (2) Collaborate on the development of next-generation semiconductor technologies. (3) Based on existing technologies, research and development of disruptive semiconductor technologies.
At the same time, Japan's new chip strategy has two main lines, namely traditional chip manufacturing and high-end chips.
1) High-end chips: 3nm is currently the most advanced process for semiconductors, and Japan has announced that it will mass-produce 2nm chips by 2027. According to **, Japan is "ambitious" to launch the Rapidus project in Hokkaido, planning to mass-produce the most advanced 2nm chips in 2027, with the intention of "leading" the world in the high-end chip market.
The project has raised questions in the market, because in a country that lags far behind overseas competitors in semiconductor production, Rapidus is a homegrown company in Japan that has only been established for 18 months, and for a company starting from scratch, producing 2nm chips is a daunting task.
But Japan is "in full swing" to put its heart and soul into it, according to **, as part of the Rapidus project, IBM is training about 100 experienced Japanese engineers in Albany, New York, to help them quickly master the expertise of high-end chips in the United States.
2) Traditional chip manufacturing: Japan plans to regain its position as a leader in traditional chip manufacturing. In order to attract foreign semiconductor companies to set up production bases in Japan, Japan** is willing to provide financial subsidies of up to 50% of the cost of setting up new factories. While traditional chips may not have the same high level of technical complexity as the latest generation of chips, they are still very important in many applications, such as automotive, industrial equipment, and more.
In addition, Japan offers substantial tax breaks to support foreign companies to set up factories. Japan's long-standing regulations, which have been in place for more than 50 years, have also been relaxed: high-tech factories, including semiconductor and battery factories, are allowed to be built on agricultural and forestry land.
So far, Japan's strategy has achieved phased success. Benefiting from Japan's strong financial subsidies, TSMC believes that Japan-funded chip projects can be launched faster than in the United States or other countries. In Japan, TSMC's $7 billion Kumamoto plant, which aims to "rebuild the semiconductor industry," is expected to be completed on Saturday, according to ** reports.
It has only been two years and four months since the construction plan was announced in October 2021, and for a typical slow-moving and tightly regulated Japan, the rapid construction of a factory in just 20 months is a very fast feat for Japan, reflecting the full support of Japan**. At the same time, TSMC's second factory in Japan is also about to be established, and the third factory is in the negotiation stage.
The pace of Japan's subsidies is in stark contrast to that of the United States and South Korea. In 2022, Biden officially signed the CHIPS and Science Act, which intends to allocate up to $39 billion in direct grant subsidies. However, more than a year has passed, and Biden has not issued any subsidies to major chipmakers like TSMC or Intel, which has also led TSMC to extend production several times to negotiate with the United States. The first $1.5 billion subsidy was not announced until this week.
In South Korea, South Korea's SK hynix's semiconductor project in Yongin City, which has not started construction since the site was selected in February 2019, was originally scheduled to start in 2022, but it has been delayed several times due to local opposition, land compensation and water supply permit issues. Even if construction starts next year, it will take nearly eight years.
The speed of fab construction in Japan is very impressive, far exceeding that of other countries. According to a report by the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET), Japan has the fastest wafer construction rate in the world, and the United States has the lowest rate. According to CSET research, a total of 635 fabs were built worldwide between 1990 and 2020, with an average time from construction to production of 682 days. Among them, Japan has the fastest 584 days, followed by South Korea with 620 days. The number of days in Europe and the Middle East was roughly flat at 690 days. The U.S. countdown is 736 days, much slower than the global average and second only to Southeast Asia's 781 days.