Japan Bets Big on Bringing Semiconductor Manufacturing Home (foreignpolicy.com) 24
To get back some of the high-tech mojo that made it an economic powerhouse, Japan is launching an ambitious program to bring back cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing, a field it ceded to Taiwan, South Korea, and China nearly 20 years ago. But will this new campaign at state-backed industrial policy succeed, and more importantly, is it even the right goal? From a report: The new initiatives are part of a broader strategy of greater "economic security" under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration, a need driven home by the massive supply chain disruptions that occurred globally under the weight of shifting supply and demand amid COVID-19. It is also part of what is, in effect, a broad-based defense mobilization program to contain an increasingly ambitious China -- one that fits nicely in with the Biden administration's own plans.
Washington has put increasingly tight limits on U.S. companies' involvement in Chinese chip manufacturing, seeking to keep control of the advanced electronics vital to modern warfare -- and the economy as a whole -- within its wider sphere of allies like Taiwan and Japan. Other segments of the Japanese plan range from more advanced weapons systems, an ability to strike an enemy's bases back at home (despite Japan's constitution forsaking warfare), and roughly doubling military spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027. It is a very full agenda, especially for a government that is now teetering from various scandals that always seem to befall Japanese administrations that are seen as already weak.
Washington has put increasingly tight limits on U.S. companies' involvement in Chinese chip manufacturing, seeking to keep control of the advanced electronics vital to modern warfare -- and the economy as a whole -- within its wider sphere of allies like Taiwan and Japan. Other segments of the Japanese plan range from more advanced weapons systems, an ability to strike an enemy's bases back at home (despite Japan's constitution forsaking warfare), and roughly doubling military spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027. It is a very full agenda, especially for a government that is now teetering from various scandals that always seem to befall Japanese administrations that are seen as already weak.
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What keeps Japanese foundries from suffering the same fate as TSMC's when China decides that it will send its troop transports and seize them by force?
You mean those transports sitting at the bottom of the ocean? Or did you mean the planes plunging into the ocean?
A recent study [taskandpurpose.com] showed the U.S. and its allies could defeat China's attempt to take over Taiwan, but at a devastating cost to both countries. Note that one of the recommendations was to acquire more anti-ship missiles. As for the planes, recent ev
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Bringing in troops by aircraft is always fraught with problems. It's simply not enough of a heavy-lift to bring everything that they need. Troops that arrive without heavy weapons are at the mercy of opposing forces that have them. Paratroopers actually living up to the title are basically limited to hand-carry weapons.
I have no doubt that the ROC government has made a careful study of exactly where their island is vulnerable to transport aircraft being able to land. To bring the literal big guns, PRC w
Re: Same issue as Taiwan... easy pickings for Chin (Score:3)
Re:Same issue as Taiwan... easy pickings for China (Score:5, Insightful)
Despite the WWII agreement that Japan will have no "offensive" military force the country has a robust and modern military, as well as being a historically diffulut island to invade.
Unlike Taiwan also there is pretty much zero ambiguity to whather the US and probably all of NATO and every major asian nation would jump to Japan's defense. Japan is probably the closest ally to the US outside of Canada. The US has 7 bases in the country including a pacific fleet base and a very large AF base.
Invading Taiwan already has the markings of a risky and bad move for China. Attempting to invade Japan is downright suicidal.
RIP chink CPU manufacturing. (Score:1)
This is sure to make Chinaman Xi Jingping shit in his kimono.
Non Tariff Trade Protectisim (Score:2)
Who is going to work in the fabs? (Score:2)
Not only that. (Score:1)
There will be a great need for comfort women to alleviate the workers tensions.
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Has japan themeans to finance this long term ? (Score:2)
Japan's auto industry is now tanking
Japan's power industry is still in very bad shape
Japan's manufacturing industry has been nearly completely eroded from the bottom, only high-end remains
Unfortunately.
What is left to finance a semi fab or two?
I certainly wish them luck.
Nobody's betting on it (Score:2)
Their terrible response to COVID that broke supply chains didn't help, and besides their labor costs are going up as their population modernizes & goes down.
So we're going to gradually disentangle from them.
I do wonder if capitalism is gonna run out of poor countries to abuse, at least at the scale of east Asia. China's eyeing Africa for just th
Re:Nobody's betting on it (Score:4, Interesting)
I do wonder if capitalism is gonna run out of poor countries to abuse, at least at the scale of east Asia.
Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia... there are plenty left to choose from. Some of those are such basketcases that you can't run a factory in them, but others are perfectly viable. To find out who is most ripe for exploitation, just find out where the Nike factories are. That's always your answer.
The problem is scale (Score:2)
We're either gonna slide into complete global authoritarian neo-feudalism or a Star Trek Utopia. And right now smart money's on Star Trek.
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Well, what enables the Star Trek Utopia is one technology we don't have yet - the replicator. This one piece of technology enables anyone to convert energy into whatever the heck they want, making scarcity no longer a thing. If you need gold because you're wiring up some circuits? Your replicator can make unlimited amounts of it.
And the replicator also enables endless recycling, since matter gets converted back to energy.
Doing so basically destroys
That's not actually true (Score:2)
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Even if Star Trek replicators are around, we still have a problem with having sufficient energy to use that everywhere.
As it is our current energy usage is already high, especially since we don't even have full renewables everywhere. If we don't solve the energy problem prior to replicators, you going to have coal power plants everywhere to power the replicators.
Hardly utopia with coal power plants spewing out all sort of crap all over the world. :)
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