More Trouble For Semiconductor Industry's Revival as Japanese Chipmakers See Engineers Shortage

Author: Anusuya Lahiri | June 27, 2022 08:13am

Japan’s leading semiconductor makers, from Toshiba Corp (OTC:TOSYY) to Sony Group Corp (NYSE:SONY), warned against a crisis of engineers threatening the government’s push to revive its domestic chip industry, the Financial Times reports.
The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association highlighted how the sector’s success hinged on securing enough talent.
The group expected eight big producers to hire about 35,000 engineers in the next ten years to keep up with the pace of investment.
Japan ceded its dominance to companies in South Korea, Taiwan, and China following a ravaging trade conflict with the U.S. triggering mass lay-offs of engineers following the global financial meltdown in 2008. A Tokyo University professor ascribed the crisis to the dearth of engineers.
An expert said that students studying semiconductors prefer financial institutions or tech companies as the chip industry has lost its sheen.
Therefore, Toshiba, Sony, and others bonded with the best science departments and ramped up funding for chip research and recruitment.
U.S. and Japanese governments had expressed their support for the industry.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (NYSE:TSM) bonded with Sony over an $8.6 billion plant on the southern island of Kyushu and looked to hire 1,700 workers for the facility. The government offered subsidies of up to ¥476 billion ($3.5 billion).
Kioxia and joint venture partner Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) spent ¥1 trillion on a factory in central Japan and looked to allocate another ¥1 trillion for a factory in northern Japan.
Renesas Electronics Corp (OTC: RNECY) looks to invest ¥90 billion to reopen a factory to expand the production of semiconductors used in electric vehicles.