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Besides the obvious of this being a hedge against Taiwan being invaded. This is also a response to US sanctions, Japan is trying once again to have an independe
by seatac76 3y ago
Besides the obvious of this being a hedge against Taiwan being invaded. This is also a response to US sanctions, Japan is trying once again to have an independent semiconductor supply chain, just as an assurance. The government has been buying up companies to shore up their base. [1]
[1]https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/26/japan-backed-fund-to-buy-semiconductor-firm-jsr-for-6point3-billion.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/26/japan-backed-fund-to-buy-sem...
- nonethewiser 3y agoAre you suggesting Japan is concerned they could be sanctioned by the US? While technically true, it's just as much of a risk for UK, Canada, etc. If they're safeguarding their access to chips that's about the least necessary risk to address.
- curiousllama 3y agoI suspect it would be more that if a company misbehaves, Japan may lose access (since the US will sanction the company). It's general resilience for critical materials given geopolitical risk, not a fear of the US per se.
- seatac76 3y agoI’m suggesting that Japan would prefer a higher degree of control and independence on semiconductor supply chain in general, to hedge against external factors like sanctions. I did not mean to imply that US would sanction them but US sanctions on equipment to China led to losses for Japanese firms. Having a deeper control of end to end semiconductor supply chain will help hedge against that, equipment sanction revenue loss can be made up by chips fab revenue as such. Makes more sense when you look at it from the government perspective, it is the government driving this despite how it appears.