Japanese official signals that Tokyo will join US in chip ban against China
- Japan must ‘address the misuse of critical and emerging technologies by malicious actors’, trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura says in Washington
- ‘We hope to build up the development of dual-use technologies and supply chain cooperation’ with the United States, says the minister
Japan will “reinforce” its coordination with the United States to restrict hi-tech exports to China, a senior Japanese trade official said on Thursday amid US efforts to forge a united front with allies in the chip war with Beijing.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry, also said Tokyo wanted to work more closely with Washington to jointly develop dual-use technologies, citing rising military challenges from Beijing following tensions across the Taiwan Strait after then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in August.
“In order to address the misuse of critical and emerging technologies by malicious actors and inappropriate transfers of technologies, it is also absolutely imperative for us to reinforce our cooperation in the area of export control,” Nishimura said during remarks at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
“We will implement strict export control grounded in international cooperation while engaging closely in exchanges of views with the United States and other relevant countries.”
His remarks offered the latest signal that Japan was likely to join – if not completely – the US chip ban against China amid a fierce semiconductor war between the world’s two largest economies.