In the 1980s, Japan dominated the global memory chip market. The country's five leading memory chipmakers—Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu and Matsushita—took turns claiming the top market share, as if reciting the old saying "brother first, younger brother first." At one point their combined global share reached 80%. People around the world even gave them the nickname "Hinomaru (Japanese flag) semiconductors." Pushed back by Japan's relentless advance, America's Intel ultimately abandoned its DRAM business in 1985.
It was the United States that was startled by a chip offensive sharper than a samurai blade. Following the 1985 "Plaza Accord," which forced a sharp appreciation of the yen, the two countries signed the "U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement" the following year. The United States argued that Japanese chipmakers were dumping products at low prices on the back of government support, and it required that the share of imported products in the Japanese market be raised to more than 20%. Japanese semiconductors fell into a "peak out"—a decline after reaching a peak—and endured a harsh ordeal, including the bankruptcy of Elpida Memory (2012), Toshiba's sale of its chip business (2018) and Panasonic's withdrawal from semiconductors (2019).
Now, facing the great transformation of artificial intelligence (AI), that same Japan is accelerating efforts to recreate the glory of its "Hinomaru semiconductors." Following Kioxia (Mie Prefecture), Rapidus (Hokkaido) and Taiwan's TSMC (Kumamoto), it has attracted a U.S. Micron production plant in Hiroshima. The structure resembles the three mega-projects of the Lee Jae-myung administration aimed at balanced regional development. Compared with its semiconductor materials, parts and equipment sectors, which have global competitiveness, Japan appears to have formed a "semiconductor oath of the peach garden" with the United States and Taiwan to strengthen its relatively inferior competitiveness in memory and foundry (contract chip manufacturing).
This is no time to be humming a tune, satisfied that Korea's memory chips have risen to the throne. Look away for even a moment, and you fall behind. That is why the ambitiously pursued Honam-region semiconductor complex and the existing Yongin cluster must engage in a battle of speed. It is encouraging that the government has shifted direction from its nuclear phase-out policy and pledged swift permits and the removal of regulations. If, on this occasion, exceptions to the 52-hour workweek system were allowed regardless of specific regions or industries to raise productivity, wouldn't that be the finishing touch?
