As much as the U.S. pines for the good old days of global semiconductor supremacy, Japan feels its loss of glory even more.

Once a dominant name in electronic components, the nation has been overtaken by South Korea, Taiwan and, more recently, China. Yet Tokyo may have a viable plan to revitalize its domestic sector.

"Unlike the purely domestic, independent way it was done in the past, I think we need to cooperate with overseas counterparts,” Akari Imari, a former economy minister and senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told Bloomberg News’s Isabel Reynolds and Emi Nobuhiro this week.