Japan can’t build a cutting-edge chip development and manufacturing base on its own, and must seek to cooperate with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), according to Akira Amari, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Amari, a former economy minister who heads an LDP working group on semiconductor strategy, added that the government must be prepared to spend trillions of yen to keep up with the U.S. and Europe. Both have plans to pour money into the industry amid a global shortage of semiconductors, including advanced logic chips that are essential for everything from artificial intelligence to autonomous driving.
"Unlike the purely domestic, independent way it was done in the past, I think we need to cooperate with overseas counterparts,” Amari said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday. "The world’s top logic chipmaker is TSMC, so we must think about how to cooperate with them.”