TOKYO — The Japanese semiconductor industry’s downfall – by way of a slow death over the past quarter century — is undeniable and well documented.
Theories about why Japan’s semi industry fell apart are many. But the single reality facing Japanese semiconductor firms is this: They no longer matter in the global market.
Tracing the top 10 semiconductor sales leaders all the way back to 1990, Brian Matas, vice president of market research at IC Insights, observed that compared to “1990 when Japanese semi suppliers wielded their greatest influence on the global stage and held six of the top 10 positions, last year only Toshiba remained in the top 10.”
Contrary to the Japanese government’s expectations, the wave of consolidations among Japanese electronics giants’ chip divisions over the last few years backfired.
The cartel-like strategy (maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition) that has historically served Japanese manufacturers so well, didn’t work for Japan’s giant chip vendors in the world market. Instead, all this churn, for all practical purposes, wiped out most memory chip vendors in Japan (except for Toshiba). At best, it has given birth to a handful of minor players.
The following chart shows how the former memory/SoC divisions of Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC , Hitachi and Mistubishi shrank into Renesas Electronics (merger of chip divisions of Hitachi, NEC and Mitsubishi), Socionext (combined SoC teams from Fujitsu Semiconductor and Panasonic) and Toshiba.

As a result, Japan as a whole, has become a niche player in the global semiconductor market.
Put more succinctly, IC Insights’ Matas said that the Japanese IC market declined 12% in 2015 to $21.2 billion, representing 7% of total worldwide IC sales of $287.1 billion. “As recently as 2010, the Japanese market accounted for 14% of global IC market,” he explained.
The questions now are:
- Is there anything left at Japanese chip companies that anyone in the rest of the world wants?
- Which technologies or product segments, if any, are salvageable, or worth further investment?
- If we grade recent restructuring programs executed by Japan’s semiconductor companies, who comes out on top? Does anybody pass?
- After examining why and how the Japanese chip industry crumbled, who do industry analysts and pundits identify as the biggest culprits?
EE Times went back to Japan and asked locals to dissect what has really gone wrong. We also asked analysts based in the United States to put Japan in the context of the global semiconductor industry.
To read the rest of this article, visit EBN sister site EE Times.
Thank you for your post. Japan has long been a niche player in the global semiconductor market !
good Bluetooth when we will be posting through Bluetooth from these times. Download SHAREit Android within occasions and just simply abide by the below guidelines that SHAREit Download Android nice.
great post and reply thanks for sharing this.
bigo live android
This is the best post I have seen so far. Thanks for this.
Due to comment spam on our site, we have changed our comment system to block all posts that include URLs. We are seeking a longer-term solution that would allow for URLs.
IMO Free Video Calls & Text
This is the best post I have seen so far. Thanks for this.
Due to comment spam on our site, we have changed our comment system to block all posts that include URLs. We are seeking a longer-term solution that would allow for URLs.
IMO Free Video Calls & Text
Thanks so very much for taking your time to create this very useful and informative site…
happy to join your community, thank you guys for the post!
Wow! I found it really inetersting! Great work 🙂 Well I just got to know your can root an android phone with just one step using Towelroot and that to not connecting to a pc! Too much to take it!
nice thanks for share great post here Music is usually the factor that we tend to fall back upon. Music became mobile with the arrival of Walkman. And now, there ar variety of apps for the smartphones that we tend to use for enjoying music. But, is enjoying music enough? would it not not be rather commendable if we tend to might get as several songs as we would like at one place MP3 Juice | MP3 Juic e App
Yeppp. This is absolutely a good post. Thanks for sharing.
Great Info. Thanks.
Awesome Post Thanks Alot man for share. avast premier license key
Hey, I have been trying to get the Jio Cinima for PC, i cant make it thouggh! Any help?
I own this tricks one but not working as well!
I tried my best to get into this loop and I succeeded! I now need a little help how this all works. Any help from anyone?
Thanks,
LM.
https://nortoncustomerservice.net/
our company will provide you best technical service, so if you have any problem related to norton antivirus you can visit here, this site will help you in solving your problem in a best way.
Try IMO For Laptop Now, It is really not really a feature of IMO but more of a trick. There are a few peoples that you don't wish to reply but you can't ignore them or else they will feel awful. Here Is What You Want to Complete:
Good to see you here. Just like the rooting method mentioned, Kingroot is also one of the best single-click rooting solution for Android.
Thanks for sharing it was of great help!! Shred Your Unwanted Documents
https://toppapershredder.com/best-paper-shredder/
Thanks him a great deal since he's not like Many others just dumping some things for revenue. He answered all afterwards about my project handed in excess of. Many thanks for his good patience in comprehending my emergency and brief reaction at need to have. Visit : Obat Herbal Infeksi Kulit
We at Expertsmind have come up with an Excellent and Probably the most effective amenities of management online tutoring. This certain service allows you to connect with our very capable management specialists and Cara Menyembuhkan Psoriasis Secara Alami Dan Cepat
If you think about how the Japanese have dominated the electronics industry for so long, I think that they really got proud and stopped innovating. It's amazing to think about how far down the rankings they've slidden if you think about how much everybody is going for Chinese components now. I don't think that there's much that they can do to get back in the game looking at the way they are going now…