Japan government will provide 92.9 billion yen ($680 million) to Kioxia and Western Digital to boost their production and supply of memory chips in Japan.
The subsidy is part of an effort to revive chip production in Japan, as tensions between China and the United States and COVID-19 pandemic disruptions spur concern that Japanese companies such as automaker Toyota Motor could be hobbled by semiconductor shortages, Reuters news report said.
“The investment will help stabilize advanced memory chip production in Japan,” economy and trade minister Koichi Hagiuda said at a press briefing. “It will contribute to Japan-U.S. cooperations in semiconductors.”
Kioxia, which was spun off from Toshiba, and Western Digital operate a joint flash memory chip plant in Yokkaichi in central Japan.
Japan’s government is also investing in a semiconductor plant being built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) in Western Japan along with Sony and autopart maker Denso.
