Japanese local governments expand cooperation with Taiwan's semiconductor industry... Nikkei Press

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Sung-mi = As Taiwan's position in the global semiconductor ecosystem is increasing and the cold Sino-Japanese relationship shows no signs of easing, the Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 4th that Japanese local governments are actively seeking cooperation with Taiwan.

Kitakyushu, an industrial city in northern Kyushu, recently dispatched its first visitation team for industry-academia-research cooperation to Hsinchu, Taiwan, where TSMC's headquarters is located.

It was also reported that Taiwan's ASE Group, the world's largest semiconductor back-end process company, plans to enter Kitakyushu.

Local government and business officials from Gifu Prefecture in central Honshu, Japan, also recently visited Taiwan and conducted industry attraction activities targeting the authorities and semiconductor companies.

Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Honshu, where semiconductor companies such as Tokyo Electron are located, promoted investment benefits through a local investment briefing session in conjunction with the international semiconductor exhibition 'Semicon Taiwan' held in Hsinchu last month.

According to a survey by the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, as of the end of July, there were about 180 partnerships between local governments in Japan and Taiwan.

Two-thirds of the partnerships were concluded after the fall of 2021, when TSMC's expansion into Kumamoto was decided.

Nikkei predicted that the economic effect that the Kumamoto region can expect over the next 10 years due to the concentration of the semiconductor industry, represented by the hosting of TSMC, will amount to 10 trillion yen (approximately 85 trillion won).

A Japanese financial industry official with Taiwan-related experience explained that Taiwan is attracting attention as a cooperation target for Japanese local governments, saying, "As the yen weakens, Europe and the United States feel distant, and it is politically difficult to visit mainland China. This is an alternative."