TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japanese government said on Friday it plans to restrict exports of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, matching its controls on technology trade with a U.S. push to limit China’s ability to make advanced chips.
Japan, home to major global chip equipment manufacturers such as Nikon Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., has not identified China as a target for the measures, saying the equipment makers would need to obtain export permission for all regions.
“We fulfill our responsibility as a technology country to contribute to international peace and stability,” the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement. It said its aim was to stop the use of advanced technology for military purposes.
Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a news conference that Japan does not have a single country in mind with the measures.
But Tokyo’s decision is seen as a major diplomatic victory for US President Joe Biden’s administration, which in October announced sweeping restrictions on China’s access to US chipmaking technology to slow its technological and military advance.
Without the cooperation of industry heavyweights from Japan and the Netherlands, American companies will face a competitive disadvantage.
Sources said earlier that Japan and the Netherlands agreed in January to join the United States in restricting exports of chipmaking equipment to China that could be used to make sub-14nm chips, but did not make the agreement public to avoid provoking Beijing. Tokyo has not publicly acknowledged any agreement.
A nanometer, or billionth of a meter, refers to a specific semiconductor manufacturing technology, with fewer nanometers generally meaning a chip is more advanced.
The Dutch government said in a letter to parliament this month that it plans to restrict exports of chipmaking equipment. The market for lithography systems used to create microcircuits for chips is dominated by the large Dutch company ASML Holding NV.
China, which has accused the United States of being a “technological hegemon” due to its export restrictions, urged the Netherlands “not to follow export control measures by certain countries”.
Limited impact?
The ministry said it will impose export controls on six categories of equipment used in chip manufacturing, including cleaning, deposition, lithography and etching.
The restrictions, which take effect from July, are likely to affect equipment manufactured by at least a dozen Japanese companies, such as Nikon, Tokyo Electron, Screen Holdings Co Ltd and Advantest Corp.
Takamoto Suzuki, head of economic research at Marubeni Corporation in China, said the measures would be a blow to Japanese equipment makers in the absence of a strong domestic chip market.
“It will undermine the market development of Japanese companies and certainly reduce their competitiveness from a regulatory point of view,” he said.
When asked about the impact, Minister Nishimura said, without elaborating, that he expected a limited impact on local businesses.
Japan, which once dominated chip production but has seen its market share drop to around 10%, remains a major supplier of chip machinery and semiconductor materials. Tokyo Electron and Screen produce about a fifth of the world’s wafers, while Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd and Sumco Corp. produce most of the silicon wafers.
Nikon and Advantest shares rose 0.8% and 1.9%, respectively, after the news, broadly in line with the broader market’s 1.1% gain. Tokyo Electron and screen have been changed slightly.
The companies did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly, Miho Uranaka and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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