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TSMC's new factory in Kumamoto, shown under construction in 2023.

TSMC's new factory in Kumamoto, shown under construction in 2023.

Photographer: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg
Opinion
Gearoid Reidy, Columnist

Chip Cities Rise in Japan's Fields of Dreams

The scale of Tokyo's ambition creates the risk of spectacular
failure, but so too does succumbing to decline in a sector the nation
once dominated.

December 11, 2024 at 3:00 PM EST
[160x160]
By Gearoid Reidy
Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the
Koreas. He previously led the breaking news team in North Asia, and
was the Tokyo deputy bureau chief.
Save

Rice paddies that lay fallow for decades in some of Japan's most
far-flung regions are now its hottest properties. As prices surge,
these areas are discovering the truth to the old adage: If you build
it, they will come1.

In Chitose, a city of 100,000 in the northernmost main island of
Hokkaido, billboards seek recruits for the Self-Defense Forces, which
saw a 50% shortfall last year. When I arrived on a fully booked plane
from Tokyo packed with salarymen in cheap suits and expensive
watches, it was easy to see where the competition was coming from: a 
half-dozen towering cranes jutting into the sky, a jarring contrast
against the surrounding countryside. Thousands of construction
workers are piecing together at breathtaking speed Japan's most
astonishing industrial gamble, a $33 billion bet that the country can
retake the top of the semiconductor industry.

 
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