In Japan, concrete investment projects related to semiconductors have been active since around 2024, and these projects are expected to progress further by 2025, with semiconductor production and development facilities expected to begin operating one after another throughout Japan in the late 2020s.

At the same time, Toyota-related companies are expected to see strong performance as a result of a recovery in automobile production and price shift in response to the easing of semiconductor shortages. In our full-year forecasts, many of our affiliated companies are likely to meet or exceed their sales volume potential targets for FY2025 or FY2030 ahead of schedule due to the strong performance of their main customers. Although there is a possibility that the company will raise its new target due to its strong performance, it is more likely that the company will prioritize lowering its break-even point and strengthening its business structure rather than increasing sales, as it tends to keep its current target conservative due to uncertainty. The recent strong performance will also affect the company’s efforts in new areas. In the meantime, whether to allocate the funds generated by increased sales to increase production or to invest in new businesses will be an important management issue in anticipation of the medium to long term.

For manufacturers whose businesses are in line with CASE development, concentrating resources on CASE response will lead to development at the same time, while manufacturers whose businesses are far from the mainstream of CASE will be asked to enter into CASE fields or new business areas. However, the electric vehicle, self-driving, and ADAS fields are dominated by the leading manufacturers, and it is difficult for new entrants to be competitive in the mainstream of these fields, so it is important to enter new fields. At the foot of the table, the urgency to change business portfolios has eased due to the current strong performance, and there is room to make changes at a reasonable speed.

Among Japanese manufacturers, Rapidus is constructing a large-scale semiconductor manufacturing facility in Chitose City, Hokkaido, and Taiwan’s TSMC is constructing a large-scale front-end semiconductor manufacturing facility in Kumamoto Prefecture. Behind the active expansion of foreign manufacturers into Japan is the aggressive injection of subsidies by the Japanese government, as well as the low level of wages in Japan, which are said to have remained flat or declined over the past 30 years. On the other hand, in some cases, foreign government laws and regulations affect investment projects involving foreign manufacturers, such as Taiwan’s PSMC’s withdrawal from its production plans in Miyagi Prefecture in October 2024 due to difficulties with the terms of Japanese government subsidies. The semiconductor strategy that the Japanese government is focusing on is also essential for the automotive industry to develop SDVs, BEVs, and ADAS, and attracting foreign investment as well as Rapidus commercialization is key to its success.