At the tail end of a year that has seen significant investments funnel into Japan’s semiconductor industry, the government has announced further funding to bolster its manufacturing and R&D efforts. Credit: Shutterstock The Japanese government has allocated an extra $13.3 billion (two trillion yen) to boost its domestic semiconductor industry. The funding is expected to be split between manufacturing and R&D, according to The Japan Times, which reported that the majority of the money will likely go to supporting TSMC and Rapidus. About $376 million (570 billion yen) will be assigned to a separate fund to enhance the stable supply of chips to Japan, the report said. The decision comes at the end of a year where both government subsidies and company investments and innovations have sought to significantly bolster the country's chip manufacturing abilities and place it at the cutting edge of semiconductor technology. In April, the Japanese government pledged $532 million for projects to develop and make next-generation chips in the country, including a deal with Rapidus to make 2nm chips in Japan by 2025. This was followed in June by Japanese semiconductor equipment maker JSR accepting a buyout offer of $6.4 billion (909.3 billion yen) from the Japanese government, providing Japan with greater control over the manufacturing of photoresists, the chemicals used for the process of printing circuit designs on chip wafers. Chipmakers Micron and TSMC also announced investments in Japan's semiconductor industry. TMSC pledged about $7.4 billion to set up a second semiconductor manufacturing plant in Japan, while Micron announced plans to invest up to $3.6 billion to bring extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) to Japan. Last month, Japan-based Canon announced it would be launching a nano-imprint lithography (NIL) machine that it claims is capable of producing parts down to a 5nm node, and could eventually produce 2nm nodes once the technology has been refined even further. Japan is currently caught in the crosshairs of the ongoing trade war between the US and China. At the start of 2023, Japan agreed to an export ban on advanced computing chips, devices that included them, and certain semiconductor manufacturing items including extreme ultraviolet lithograph machines. As a result, in addition to financially shoring up its homegrown semiconductor industry, Japan is also seeking to form partnerships with other jurisdictions and strengthen its global standing in the chip space. In July, the EU-Japan Digital Partnership was formed to improve cooperation between the two regions on digital issues. In addition to focusing on issues relating to undersea cable connectivity, investment in quantum and high-performance computing (HPC), and AI regulation, the governments pledged to monitor the global chip supply chain and provide support to Japanese semiconductor companies looking to operate within the EU. "We believe that it's extremely important to secure the supply chain of semiconductors," EU Commissioner Thierry Breton told Reuters at the time, adding that the EU was seeking to "de-risk" its own technology supply chains by implementing policies to reduce its dependence on China-made technology such as chips. Related content brandpost Sponsored by HPE Aruba Networking Bringing the data processing unit (DPU) revolution to your data center By Mark Berly, CTO Data Center Networking, HPE Aruba Networking Dec 04, 2023 4 mins Data Center feature 5 ways to boost server efficiency Right-sizing workloads, upgrading to newer servers, and managing power consumption can help enterprises reach their data center sustainability goals. By Maria Korolov Dec 04, 2023 9 mins Green IT Servers Data Center news Omdia: AI boosts server spending but unit sales still plunge A rush to build AI capacity using expensive coprocessors is jacking up the prices of servers, says research firm Omdia. By Andy Patrizio Dec 04, 2023 4 mins CPUs and Processors Generative AI Data Center feature What is Ethernet? History, evolution and roadmap The Ethernet protocol connects LANs, WANs, Internet, cloud, IoT devices, Wi-Fi systems into one seamless global communications network. By John Breeden Dec 04, 2023 11 mins Networking Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe