The Japanese government decided to provide an additional 631.5 billion yen (about 5.89 trillion won) to the semiconductor corporations Rapidus. The government said it is part of efforts to rebuild Japan's semiconductor industry.
According to Nippon.com and Reuters on the 12th, with this additional support decision, the Japanese government's support for Rapidus has increased to a total of 2.353 trillion yen (about 21.9 trillion won).
Rapidus is a semiconductor corporations established in Hokkaido, led by the Japanese government in 2022 with a total investment of 7.3 billion yen from eight corporations including Toyota Motor, and it is accelerating the development of next-generation ultra-fine processes. The company set a goal to begin mass production of 2-nanometer (nm; one-billionth of a meter) cutting-edge chips in 2027 and to narrow the technology gap with Taiwan's TSMC at the 1 nm node to about six months.
In addition, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry decided to support up to 58.5 billion yen (about 545.6 billion won) and 17.5 billion yen (about 163.2 billion won), respectively, for semiconductor design-related projects by Fujitsu and IBM's Japan subsidiary.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government, aiming to revive Japan's semiconductors that dominated the world in the 1980s, has presented a blueprint to expand domestic semiconductor sales to 40 trillion yen (about 373 trillion won) in 2040.