alt Hacker NewsJapan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub
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Good choice with a proven track record. S. R. Hadden built an impressive machine there in the late 90’s.
Somewhat related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44828559
This, on the surface, makes logistical sense. Chitose (the proposed location) is the international airport for and largest airport in Hokkaido (New Chitose Airport). Setting up a fab and related facilities right next to this location would seem to have obvious benefits.
Hokkaido is by a wide margin my favorite place in the world. If I could easily HQ a tech company there (for global sales; Japan domestic market is stagnant), I would.
As a European I have to say I am extremely jealous of a government with the willingness of doing something as radical as this.
Europe desperately needs to secure its own semi conductor supply chain. Neither the EU nor any member states seems willing to do anything about this though.
Europe still is in a position, where it feasibly could control 100% of the semiconductor value chain on the continent. But besides meaning posturing there is nothing being done.
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isn't it risky to build this in a seismically active region? wouldn't somewhere that has almost no history of earthquakes like korea be better?
Interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing.
Is Hokkaido defensible? Once China solves the Taiwan problem they're going to turn their sights on Korea and Japan.
Maybe we should stop selecting islands next to China to be global critical supply chain hubs. I mean, even if the Chinese were non-expansionist and benevolent, it's still kind of tempting them a little too much.
Why are all the comments here so weird? It's like people saw (but didn't read) an article entitled "Man Opens a Taqueria in his Hometown" and the only responses are
1) Why didn't he open it in my hometown? This location isn't convenient for me.
2) Wouldn't it be better for someone else to open a taqueria instead? My cousin is looking for work. Shouldn't we be putting resources into helping him open a restaurant instead?
It's like people hear "X in Asian country" and all they can think about is their own geopolitical narrative fed to them by the US state department. Obviously Japan is going to want to develop lucrative manufacturing... within Japan.