[By Guancha Observer Network, Zhou Shengming; Edited by Gao Shen] According to a May 20 report by the "Nikkei Asian Review," of the seven semiconductor factories that Japanese companies either newly built or acquired during the 2023 fiscal year and 2024 fiscal year, only three have achieved mass production.

The report indicates that this reflects the sluggish recovery in chip demand in fields other than artificial intelligence.

Currently, Japan is actively promoting the reconstruction of its domestic semiconductor industry in order to enhance local production capacity. It is expected that the total investment in Japan's semiconductor industry from 2022 to 2029 will reach approximately 9 trillion yen (about 450 billion RMB), while the Japanese government plans to provide more than 10 trillion yen (about 500 billion RMB) support for the semiconductor and AI sectors before the 2030 fiscal year.

However, according to an investigation by the "Nikkei Asian Review" on the investment situation of nine major semiconductor enterprises over the past two years, these investments have not yet yielded significant results.

Renesas Electronics of Japan restarted the Maebashi factory, which had been shut down for nine years, in April 2024. The factory was originally scheduled to begin mass production earlier this year. However, due to weak demand for power semiconductors used in electric vehicles and other areas, the company was forced to reconsider its plans.

Hidetoshi Shibata, president of the company, stated at a press conference last month: "Market conditions remain extremely uncertain. We will maintain as cautious an attitude as possible." He did not specify the exact time for mass production.

The "Nikkei Asian Review" analysis suggests that chip manufacturers are cautiously observing the market partly to alleviate the financial burden brought by the factories. Even after construction is completed, depreciation typically begins only after formal production starts.

Rohm Semiconductor acquired a factory in 2023. Although trial production began in November last year, the official production start date has yet to be determined. Sanken Electric also purchased a factory intended to increase the production of power semiconductors, but the company has postponed the start of production across the board, with expectations set for 2026 or even later.

Kioxia Holdings completed a memory chip manufacturing plant in July 2024, but the factory is not expected to be operational until September this year. This decision was made because Kioxia chose to wait for the recovery of the memory market.

On the other hand, companies in Japan that have already achieved mass production in new factories are also proceeding cautiously with expansion plans.

The report notes that Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, a subsidiary of TSMC, has started mass production at its first factory in December last year, but some observers believe that the factory's capacity is not being fully utilized.

In addition, Sony Group's new chip factory at Isahaya still has excess capacity, but Sony is hesitating whether to add equipment investment based on market conditions.

The factory was originally planned to expand the production capacity of smartphone image sensors, but due to a decline in iPhone sales by Apple last year and the shift of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers to local suppliers, its demand has been affected.

It is understood that since it usually takes about 18 months to two years from the groundbreaking to the official operation of a chip factory, Sony's strategy is to "build the factory first," and then invest in equipment when the timing is right. Currently, Sony also launched the construction of another smartphone sensor factory in April 2024, but it stated that this factory would only start operations after the capacity of the Isahaya factory is exhausted.

"In 1988, Japan's electronic manufacturers once accounted for half of the global semiconductor market. However, due to their inability to compete with South Korean and Taiwan-based competitors in terms of cost-effectiveness, the development of advanced Japanese chips eventually stagnated," commented the "Nikkei Asian Review."

Research firm Omdia pointed out that last year, Japan's share of global semiconductor sales dropped to 7.1%, a decrease of 1.7% year-on-year, which is the lowest level since the 1980s.

"Currently, the world's most advanced chip factories can produce 2-nanometer chips, while Japan's maximum production capability reaches only 12 nanometers. Most Japanese chip companies can only produce chips with a process size of 40 nanometers or larger. They lag behind overseas competitors in the research and production of AI chips and are far behind the wave of generative artificial intelligence," commented the "Nikkei Asian Review."

This article is an exclusive contribution from the Guancha Observer Network and cannot be reproduced without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507110690621194763/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone, and you are welcome to express your opinions by clicking the "Like/Dislike" buttons below.