Japan shares with Europe an almost identical strategic position: strong in materials and manufacturing equipment, weak in advanced logic, working to build domestic capacity (Rapidus in Chitose, target of 2 nm by 2027). TEL, Screen, Shin-Etsu, and JSR are Japanese firms that are irreplaceable in the chain that runs from silicon wafer to finished chip.
Rapidus is collaborating with imec (Belgium) on the development of GAA fabrication processes. , Newly founded chip manufacturer Rapidus joins imec's Core Partner Program , 2023-04-04 · link This is the most strategically important live partnership: imec is the world's leading semiconductor research institute, headquartered in Leuven, partly funded by the Belgian government and by industry. The imec–Rapidus channel is exactly the kind of deep technical partnership that can substitute for direct industrial investment.
The EU-Japan Digital Partnership (signed 2022) , Digital Partnerships , Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, 2022-05-12 · link · archived covers semiconductors, HPC, AI, and 6G. Implementation has been steady but unspectacular, with most progress at the research level rather than the industrial level.
Practical direction: shared research and joint investment in next-generation manufacturing technologies. The goal should be to lock in preferential European access to Rapidus's 2 nm capacity once it is operational (target 2027), in exchange for European capital participation and joint development of post-2nm process technology via imec.
The asymmetry that makes Japan attractive: it is too small a market to dominate Europe industrially, and too capable to be marginalised. Unlike a partnership with Korea — where the size disparity is roughly even — partnership with Japan is the closest Europe has to industrial cooperation between equals.