"We are fulfilling our responsibility as a technological nation to contribute to international peace and stability," the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement. It said its goal was to stop advanced technology being used for military purposes.
Industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a news conference that Japan does not have one specific country in mind with the measures. But Tokyo's decision is seen as a major diplomatic win for U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, which in October announced sweeping restrictions on China's access to U.S. chipmaking tech to slow its technological and military advances.
Without the cooperation of industry heavyweights Japan and the Netherlands, U.S. companies would face a competitive disadvantage. Japan and the Netherlands in January agreed join the U.S. in restrict chipmaking equipment exports to China that could be used to manufacture sub-14 nanometre chips, but did not announce the pact to avoid provoking Beijing, sources earlier said. Tokyo has never publicly acknowledged any agreement. A nanometre, or one-billionth of a meter, refers to a specific semiconductor industry technology, with fewer nanometres generally meaning the chip is more advanced. The Netherlands' government in a letter to parliament this month said it plans to restrict chipmaking equipment exports.
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, effective from July, are likely to affect equipment manufactured by at least a dozen Japanese companies,head of economic research for Marubeni in China, said the measures will be a blow to Japanese equipment makers given 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 aspect," he said. When asked about impact, minister Nishimura said, without elaborating, he expected limited impact on domestic companies.
The share prices of Nikon and Advantest rose 0.8% and 1.9% respectively after the news, broadly in line with the wider market's (.N225) 1.1% rise. Tokyo Electron and Screen were little changed.
Digital currencies and newly invented cryptocurrencies, rather than solving problems in finance, can in fact create new challenges, Xuan Changneng, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said at the annual Boao Forum in Hainan province. Advertisement ·
