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Japan’s Economic Security Minister Warns On Chip Industry Survival

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Takayuki Kobayashi says country needs a strategic vision that matches US and China approaches
 
Japanese Empress Emerita Michiko, wife of Emperor Emeritus Akihito, turned 87 on Wednesday.

She continued to avoid outings and refrain from inviting guests in the last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, spending peaceful days with the Emperor Emeritus at their Sento Kari Gosho temporary Imperial residence in Tokyo, according to the Imperial Household Agency.

The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics this summer have been a good memory for the Empress Emerita, who often talks about the event with the 87-year-old Emperor Emeritus during morning and evening walks and with her aides.

The couple also recalled memories of foreign royals who visited Japan for the previous Tokyo Games in 1964.

The Empress Emerita has watched closely news reports on natural disasters, including a deadly mudslide in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, in July.

She seems to be relieved that reconstruction is progressing gradually in areas hit by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, according to the agency.

Empress Emerita Michiko has heard in news reports that experimental rice farming began in a town near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and that the turf at a soccer venue for the 2020 Games was grown in the tsunami-hit prefecture of Miyagi.

Suffering a fever in afternoons since May last year, the Empress Emerita saw her brain natriuretic peptide, an indicator to assess the possibility of heart failure, rise as high as levels recorded after she underwent breast cancer surgery in September 2019.

On the other hand, there has been a moderate improvement in stiffness in her fingers that was apparently caused by hormone therapy administered after the surgery. Thanks to the improvement, she has gradually been able to play the piano again.

The couple have continued to read books aloud after breakfast.
Referring to Princess Mako, an aide said the Empress Emerita has always been fond of the granddaughter and seems to be sad about the princess leaving the Imperial Family upon her marriage scheduled for Tuesday.

Kobayashi, a 46-year-old graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, has been given a rare and powerful mandate to intervene in economic security matters ranging from chips to rare earths and cyber security — a remit that cuts across the trade, finance and communications ministries.

Kobayashi indicated his mandate could extend to having influence over government decisions related to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, which was revised in 2019 to tighten regulations over foreign investment in Japanese companies.

The revision caused listed businesses to be ranked into three tiers of national security-related sensitivity, prompting some foreign investors to conclude that the changes had in part been made to discourage activist funds.

The creation of the new post also comes as the government has persuaded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, to build a new fabrication plant in Japan with what people close to the negotiations said were heavy subsidies from Tokyo.

“This is just the first step,” Kobayashi said. “There would be no revival for Japan’s semiconductor industry if we stopped here.”

He said the government needed to quickly demonstrate “a concrete commitment” of how it wanted to position the country in 10 years’ time, in addition to state subsidies and support to compete with other big economies.

“Only then would Japanese companies linked to the semiconductor industry feel motivated to work together as part of a national effort,” added Kobayashi. In the late 1980s, Japan’s chip industry surpassed that of the US to become the biggest in the world. It has since suffered a relentless decline, although the country still plays a pivotal role in semiconductor equipment and materials.

Echoing initiatives by the Biden administration in the US, part of Japan’s new growth strategy focuses on building a semiconductor supply chain that is self-sufficient enough to survive disruption such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since it cannot supply all of the technologies on its own, Kishida has said it is critical for liberal, democratic countries to work together to keep the supply chain in friendly hands.

Kobayashi denied Japan’s economic security measures were specifically targeted at China, saying the government had no intention to intervene in the private sector’s deep business ties with the world’s second-largest economy.

“But companies obviously need to take appropriate action in light of the differences in legal framework, rules and practices,” he added.
 

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