As efforts continue to revive Japan's semiconductor industry, no Japanese company ranks among the top companies by market capitalization, while South Korean companies are expanding their local investment and the balance of power in Japan-South Korea relations is being reshaped. This is a summary of developments in Japan as reported by South Korean media.
As major Japanese semiconductor equipment companies expand, attention is being drawn to SK hynix's efforts to build a local fab in Japan. This indicates that Japan is seeking to revive its domestic semiconductor industry.
No Japanese companies rank among the world's top 10 semiconductor companies by market capitalization, while South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK hynix occupy leading positions. Meanwhile, Kioxia Holdings, Japan's leading NAND flash memory company, has a market capitalization of approximately KRW 256 trillion, well below the level of the leading companies.
Japan's former dominance had collapsed by the 1990s. The situation has changed from 1990, when 6 Japanese companies were among the top 10, and Japan is now said to be limited to niche areas such as automotive semiconductors and image sensors.
The Japanese government's two-track strategy is described as combining a subsidy policy to attract advanced fabs operated by overseas companies with efforts to restore domestic next-generation semiconductor production capacity centered on Rapidus.