Pegatron Chairman Tung Tzu-hsien. CNA photo Feb. 21, 2024
Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) Japan's work culture makes it the "better choice" for Taiwanese chip manufacturers to establish subsidiaries and expand, Pegatron Chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) said Wednesday.
Tung was asked about his view on Taiwan linking up with Japan in the semiconductor industry on the sidelines of a book talk about the development of the semiconductor industry at the Taipei International Book Exhibition.
Of Germany, the U.S., and Japan - which have all invited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip maker, to set up subsidiary fabs in their countries - Japan is the "better choice," Tung said.
"Japanese people's 'shokunin' spirit [meaning their pursuit of perfection in work] is a perfect match for the precise skills required by the semiconductor industry," Tung said.
In around 70 percent of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, Taiwan and Japan are in either a complementary or upstream-downstream relationship, the Pegatron boss said.
"For instance, TSMC was quite nervous when the Fukushima earthquake shook Japan, as there are many precision chemical materials produced and are only produced in Japan's Fukushima and Kyushu regions," Tung said.
Huang Chin-yung (黃欽勇), the founder and president of online tech media Digitimes, whose new book about the future development of the semiconductor industry was featured at the talk, agreed with Tung's evaluation.
"Japan's semiconductor equipment making accounts for about 32 percent of the global supply, and its semiconductor materials, 56 percent - those are the areas where Taiwan is relatively weak," Huang said.
In addition, the production of goods that use semiconductors - an area with which Taiwan is somewhat unfamiliar - Japan is relatively strong, Huang said, citing Nintendo as an example.
"So in terms of defining the future market, Japan is better than us but also needs us. There is no other time in history that the two countries are such a good match," Huang stressed.
TSMC's Kumamoto plant is slated to open on Feb. 24.
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