America’s hoped-for Asian semiconductor pact looks tricky
Yet there are clues to the project’s importance. “JASM", the name of a Japanese subsidiary of TSMC, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant, is written on a wall of the construction site. Down the road stand nondescript complexes belonging to Sony and Tokyo Electron, two big Japanese semiconductor firms. In a couple of years, the new plant will begin churning out chips, primarily for use in cars. Japanese officials hope it will help jump-start the country’s once-mighty, now flagging chip industry. Kabashima Ikuo,…