Samsung at the center of reconciliation between South Korea and Japan

Samsung, the most listed company in South Korea, is preparing to build a semiconductor development center in Yokohama, in Japan. He will join his research and development institute based in the same city since 1997. A means for the two powers to clear things up and join forces in an industry marked by the standoff between the United States and China.

The opening of a center in Yokohama is imminent

Indiscretions reached the newspaper Nike Asiathe 13th This reveals Samsung’s ambitions towards Japan. According to the Japanese business newspaper, the center’s activities will mainly focus on the issue all about the upstream semiconductor production. In other words, they will focus on it the realization of electrical circuits and their integration on printed circuits before starting the final manufacturing process. The construction costs of this new development center would total $222 million. He should operate independently of the research and development institute.

Samsung plans it put this site into operation from 2025 and thus employ several hundred people. Meanwhile, the Suwon-based company hopes be able to take advantage of the subsidies offered by Tokyo for investments in the microchip area. this could reach 67 million euros.

Given the advance of Taiwan and the Americans in the Japan field try to stay in the running. With an envelope of 5.3 billion eurosthe archipelago wishes triple its industry sales by 2030. Rapidus, a semiconductor manufacturer based in Chiyoda, has already received more than 470 million euros in aid commissioned by the Japanese government to ensure orderly development by building a new factory and strengthening R&D activities.

Samsung is not the first giant looking to expand in Japan. At the end of October, the Taiwanese world market leader TSMC would have committed itself a feasibility study to establish more and more in the country. One of his factories is under construction on the island of Kyushu since October 2021.

South Korea and Japan are getting closer

Samsung’s investment in Japan should enable the two powers to use their expertise in the field of chips. As a reminder, the country is one of the leading manufacturers of basic components and devices semiconductor manufacturing. For its part, Samsung is the market leader in the production of memory chips.

Both states are also looking improve their relationshipsinfluenced by the period of Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945. Since his election a year ago, Yoon Suk Yeol, President of South Korea, has had made this goal one of its absolute priorities. « We must Break the cycle of mutual hostility and work together in search of the common interests of our two countries ‘ he insisted.

South Korean President had visited Fumio Kishida, the Japanese Prime Minister, last March. He returned the favor by traveling to Seoul last week. According to people familiar with the matter Yoon Suk Yeol could be invited by Fumio Kishida to attend the G7 will be held in Hiroshima next weekend.