Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor consignment manufacturing company, held an opening ceremony at its Kumamoto Plant (Factory 1) in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan on the 24th, Yomiuri and Nippon Keizai Shimbun reported.
The opening ceremony was attended by TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou and Chairman Liu Deyin, and by the Japanese government, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito and others. Sony Group Chairman Kenichiro Yoshida, who invested in the factory operating company, Toyota Motor Company Chairman Akio Toyota, and Denso President Shinnosuke Hayashi also attended.
The Kumamoto plant will begin mass production of semiconductors with circuit line widths of 12 to 28 nanometers (nm, one billionth of a meter), which are currently state-of-the-art, from October to December of this year. The investment amount is 8.6 billion dollars (about 11.4595 trillion won), and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will subsidize up to 476 billion yen (about 4.2 trillion won).
The Kumamoto plant, which will realize TSMC’s first production in Japan, is a factory led by the Japanese government. After TSMC announced its intention to enter Japan in October 2021, construction began in April 2022 and was completed in December last year.
In his greeting at the opening ceremony of the first factory, founder Jang Jungmou expressed his expectations, saying, “I believe this is the beginning of a renaissance in Japanese semiconductor manufacturing.” He, who had a strong influence on the industry even after his retirement in 2018, said that the opening of the Kumamoto plant “will further strengthen the strength of semiconductor supply to Japan and the world.”
TSMC also announced that it will build a second plant in Japan in Kumamoto Prefecture and plans to begin operation at the end of 2027.
In relation to this, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent a video message and announced that, following the first factory, he has decided to support the second Kumamoto factory, which is scheduled to begin construction by the end of 2024.
Prime Minister Kishida emphasized, “Semiconductors are a core technology that is indispensable for the realization of digitalization and decarbonization.”
Source: Donga
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