Japan-Vietnam tie-ups evident in semiconductors

Japan-Vietnam tie-ups evident in semiconductors

Strengthening Vietnam-Japan cooperation in training personnel and developing the semiconductor supply chain is expected to significantly accelerate the growth of the industry.

Dozens of leading semiconductor enterprises from Kyushu, the cradle of the Japanese semiconductor industry, visited Vietnam last week to seek cooperation opportunities.

Kyushu is Japan’s capital of high technology, especially in manufacturing electronics and semiconductors. During its heyday, semiconductor production in the region contributed greatly to Japan’s economy, accounting for half of the global semiconductor industry market share.

“The Japanese government is determined to revive the Kyushu region by attracting and investing in over 100 projects with a total value of $30 billion, particularly the billion-dollar chip factory project of TSMC. In this strategy, Kyushu is looking for strategic partners, and Vietnam is becoming an important destination,” emphasised a representative of the Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Fujino Kenji, CEO of Nisso Corporation, provider of engineers for the manufacturing industry, said that the company is currently cooperating with Vietnamese universities, inviting students to Japan to train and then work at enterprises across Japan.

“I would like to strengthen cooperation with Vietnamese enterprises and universities to receive, train, and supply labour for both the Japanese and Vietnamese markets,” Kenji said.

In the next few years, Japan will lack about 200,000 semiconductor engineers. With that, Nguyen Vinh Quang, CEO and founder of FPT Semiconductor, has introduced two initiatives. The first is in education, training high-quality semiconductor personnel for both Vietnam and Japan.

“We are honoured to support the Vietnamese government to help train 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030, through training activities such as launching co-innovation spaces in Hanoi and Danang, establishing a semiconductor microchip faculty at FPT University, and recruiting 1,000 students in the first year,” Quang said.

The second initiative involves the manufacturing chain, aiming to ensure that the production chain is not broken for both Vietnam and Japan, developing technology, and gradually participating in the semiconductor value chain.

“We believe that with the support of the Kyushu government, these moves will be momentum to boost the Vietnamese semiconductor industry, and perfect the chip packaging and testing process there, as well as open up a new era in cooperation between the two countries in high-tech fields,” he added.

Vu Quoc Huy, director of the National Innovation Centre said, “Vietnam has gathered the conditions to be ready to welcome and cooperate with businesses and investors from all over the world in the semiconductor industry. Japan also has a significant presence. For example, Renesas is setting up the world’s largest research and development base in Vietnam with nearly 1,500 engineers.”

Numerous Japanese experts and political officers consider Vietnam as a promising partner. Tanimoto Jun, executive vice president of Kyushyu University, said that the semiconductor industry is becoming increasingly important and strategic.

“While Japan is carrying out research and development in this field, we cannot do it alone. Vietnam has great potential in semiconductors, and be able to become an important partner of Japan in this field,” Jun said.

Japanese legislator and congressman Soramoto Seiki said that Japan is in the process of developing new generation semiconductor products. This is an opportunity for Japan and Vietnam to cooperate in researching and developing new techniques, as well as exchanging and transferring related technologies to each other, supplementing the shortcomings of each side.

“Such exchange and coordination aims to not only design and manufacture semiconductor products, but also contribute to fully exploiting the features of semiconductors, complementing each other in both ensuring and training workers,” Seiki said.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry said that in 2025, it will continue to utilise the semiconductor industry development plan. In the first phase, an investment of about $10 billion will be spent to revive and develop the industry and related manufacturing segments.

In the next 10 years, an additional $330 billion will be poured into the semiconductor industry, and this investment will be integrated with the development of AI, along with capacity enhancement for the country’s localities. It is expected that by 2030, this investment will generate aver $1 trillion for the Japanese economy.

VIR