Kyoto University associate professor Mitsuaki Kaneko is commercializing SiC-based mixed-signal LSIs that work where silicon fails. His complementary JFET approach targets ADC samples in 2028-2029, opening a niche the big five SiC power players have largely ignored.
TSMC's Japanese subsidiary JASM posted a quarterly profit of NT$951 million (about $30 million / ¥4.78 billion) in Q1 2026 — the first time the Kumamoto fab has been in the black since mass production began in December 2024. We unpack what the 14-month turnaround means against the backdrop of Japan's ¥1.23 trillion in subsidies, the Sony-Denso-Toyota partnership, TSMC's Arizona and Dresden expansions, and Rapidus's high-stakes 2nm bet.
Toshiba reported record net profit of 1.9673 trillion yen (about $12.5 billion) for fiscal 2025, a sevenfold jump driven by gains from selling its stake in Kioxia and a structural surge in transmission and HDD demand from AI data centers. Nearly two years after the JIP-led privatization, what has Japan's biggest private-equity restructuring actually changed? We compare it with Blackstone's Hilton success and the cautionary tale of Toys R Us.
Kioxia forecast a 48-fold jump in Q1 net profit to 869 billion yen ($5.5 billion), making the Japanese NAND maker Japan's single-largest AI beneficiary on a quarterly basis after Toyota. We unpack the US ADS listing plan, the supercycle reshaping NAND prices, the HBM gap with Samsung and SK Hynix, and what it all means for Japan's broader semiconductor revival.
Rohm posted a record 158.4 billion yen ($1 billion) net loss for fiscal 2026 after writing down 193.6 billion yen ($1.23B) on SiC power semiconductor assets. CEO Katsumi Azuma called it 'clearing out the pus'—a stark admission that Japan's biggest SiC bet was mistimed. With Wolfspeed in Chapter 11 and Chinese rivals slashing wafer prices to a third, the global silicon carbide gold rush has hit its reset moment.
PM Sanae Takaichi pledges to effectively double research funding and build a 'new technological nation,' targeting AI, semiconductors, and quantum to compete with the US, China, and Korea. We examine the reality behind the plan—Japan's 3.44% R&D-to-GDP ratio, declining PhD numbers—and whether the strategy can work.
Nikon posted a record net loss of 86 billion yen (about $548 million) for fiscal year 2026, dragged down by a 90.6 billion yen writedown on its German SLM Solutions metal 3D printer acquisition. As Canon attacks the lithography market and TSMC Kumamoto ramps up 3nm production, Japan's optics giant is somehow missing its country's semiconductor boom. We unpack the ASML technology gap, failed diversification bets, and the Essilor Luxottica wildcard.
Sony Semiconductor Solutions has signed an MOU with TSMC to form a next-generation image sensor joint venture. Why is the 51% market leader pairing with Taiwan instead of going it alone? We compare it with the US CHIPS Act, EU Chips Act, and Korea's K-Chips Act, and explore the Apple-Samsung tug-of-war shaping the physical-AI era.
Japan's next-gen supercomputer Fugaku NEXT bets against the cooling consensus: warming water above 30°C to cool AI servers and cutting cooling power by 20%. It may also adopt 'ZAM,' a new memory developed by SoftBank and Intel that stands DRAM chips on edge with magnetic-field coupling. Why Japan is choosing efficiency over the gigawatt-scale arms race that defines US Frontier and El Capitan.
On May 7, 2026, the Nikkei 225 surged 3,320 yen (5.58%) to close at 62,833, setting an all-time record for the largest single-day gain in points. The previous record of 3,217 yen from August 2024 was surpassed amid optimism over a U.S.-Iran ceasefire memo and AI semiconductor buying. Yet the percentage gain doesn't even crack the historical top 20, revealing how rising index levels are reshaping what 'record' means. Trading volume hit a post-Prime-market record of 10.8 trillion yen.
GPU-to-GPU optical interconnects were forecast to arrive around 2033. NVIDIA just pulled them in by five years, announcing they will ship in the 2028 Feynman GPU generation. As Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) hits mass production, Furukawa Electric is investing 38 billion yen to quintuple its DFB laser output, while Sumitomo Electric supplies critical components for NVIDIA's Quantum-X Photonics switches. We unpack the high-stakes race between NVIDIA, Broadcom, Intel, and NTT's IOWN — and where Japan's optical suppliers stand in it.
JBIC and Japan's three megabanks have signed off on $2.221 billion in loans for the first three projects of a $550 billion US investment package—the price Tokyo paid to bring Trump's tariffs down from 25% to 15%. We unpack the deal, the dollar-funding crunch, and why critics call it a 'vaporware' bet.
Japan's data center power consumption is set to triple by 2034, with 60 percent concentrated in the Tokyo region. The government's answer is Watt-Bit Integration. Compared with Virginia, Ireland, and Singapore, Japan's regional-distribution-plus-decarbonization approach offers a distinctive third way to manage the AI-era electricity crunch.
Kioxia and Sandisk have achieved a world-first technological milestone toward 3D NAND flash memory exceeding 1,000 layers. Their multi-stacked cell array CMOS (MSA-CBA) structure with wafer-to-wafer Cu direct bonding successfully demonstrated QLC operation, and will be unveiled at the VLSI Symposium 2026 in Hawaii this June. We break down the technology, the three-way stacking race against Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron, and what soaring AI data center demand means for the NAND market.
Kao, famous for Biore and Attack, has launched its first overseas semiconductor cleaning center in Taiwan. Ajinomoto, the MSG maker, is pouring over 25 billion yen into ABF insulation films that hold nearly 100% global share. We explain how Japanese consumer goods companies—alongside Shin-Etsu, SUMCO, JSR, and TOK—became indispensable to the AI chip supply chain, and how they compete with US, European, Korean, and Taiwanese rivals.
Just three days after Denso's withdrawal, Mitsubishi Electric CEO Kei Urutsuma declared he wants to spin off only the power semiconductor businesses of all three companies and form a joint venture. This proposes a different framework from Rohm and Toshiba's full semiconductor integration plan, adding a new wrinkle to the world No.2 alliance vision. We analyze competition with Wolfspeed, Infineon, and STMicroelectronics, the SiC market share battle, and the impact on the EV industry.
Fujitsu is doubling down on its sovereign AI strategy with the FUJITSU-MONAKA CPU series, choosing Rapidus as a manufacturing partner and 'coexisting' with NVIDIA's GPUs rather than competing. We compare Japan's hybrid approach to China's fully autonomous Loongson (LoongArch) and Europe's Arm-based SiPearl, revealing how Japan's pragmatic balance defines a third path in global chip sovereignty.
Kumamoto Prefecture, Koshi City and Mitsui Fudosan signed a partnership agreement on April 27 to launch a 31-hectare 'Kumamoto Science Park' core hub — modeled on Taiwan's Hsinchu — to anchor Japan's semiconductor revival around TSMC's 3nm Kumamoto fab by 2030. We compare it with the US CHIPS Act and EU Chips Act, and unpack the land-price spikes and labor crunch already reshaping the region.
On April 25, 2026, Denso announced plans to withdraw its $8.2 billion acquisition proposal for Rohm. Rohm chose the three-way alliance with Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric, while Denso pivots to actively explore partnerships with third parties. We analyze the conclusion of Japan's 50-day power semiconductor reshuffle and what's next for Toyota Group's chip in-house strategy.
Resonac, the world's top supplier of back-end semiconductor materials, has fully launched US-JOINT, a 12-company Japan-US consortium R&D center in Union City, California. The goal: cut proof-of-concept cycles from six months to one, and plug directly into the custom AI chip development of GAFAM-class hyperscalers.