The Japanese government has taken a step towards following the USA’s sanctions policy against China by issuing export controls for production equipment and technologies used in semiconductor manufacturing. The new regulation restricts exports to China, among other countries, and applies only to “preferred trading partners” such as the EU, Taiwan and Singapore. The purpose of these export restrictions is primarily to weaken China’s semiconductor industry and slow down its economic development in this segment.
The USA had already expanded its sanctions against the chip industry in China at the end of last year, and applied them to all production technology for high-performance chips worldwide that use US patents. Negotiations had reportedly taken place with Japan and the Netherlands to join these measures – particularly because of the supplier companies ASML (Netherlands) and Tokyo Electron/TEL and Nikon (Japan), which are important for semiconductor production. This specifically involves photolithography processes for the production of semiconductor elements with structure sizes of less than 10 nanometers.
Despite these new regulations, Japan maintains that the restrictions are not directed against a specific country. The government intends to maintain other important economic relationships with China that are not affected by these export restrictions and make up a significant part of the Japanese economy. China is Japan’s most important Asian trading partner and the most important trading partner of Japan’s chip industry.
However, according to a report by Handelsblatt, the Japanese government will now examine whether there is a “danger of military misappropriation” in exports for semiconductor production. The government is now able to control the supply of products and equipment to certain companies abroad, while the Ministry of Commerce has discretion to interpret the export rules.
In summary, Japan is taking steps to follow the USA’s sanctions policy against China in order to weaken China’s semiconductor industry and slow down its economic development in this segment. The new regulations restrict exports to China, among other countries, but maintain that the restrictions are not directed against a specific country. The Japanese government will now examine whether there is a “danger of military misappropriation” in exports for semiconductor production.
