Japan is officially moving forward with restrictions aimed at limiting China’s access to advanced chip-making machinery. As , the country announced on Friday that it would tighten export controls on 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Once the new rules take effect in July, companies like Nikon and Tokyo Electron will need to get approval from Japan’s Ministry of Commerce if they want to sell their tools in some 160 territories around the world. A Japanese government spokesman said CNN the restrictions are not designed to target a specific nation. However, Japan’s East Asian rival is among the nations on the shortlist.
“We will fulfill our responsibilities in the international community as a technology-owning country and contribute to maintaining international peace and security,” Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry, told reporters.
The restrictions follow the US and the Netherlands enacting similar export controls. Earlier this year, the three countries reportedly limited China’s access to Western-made lithography machines. In March, the Netherlands complied with the agreement and announced that in the interest of their national security. Those restrictions will affect ASML. Until last year, the Dutch firm was the only company in the world producing the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that chipmakers need to make the 5nm and 3nm semiconductors that power the latest computers.
China has local companies able to make up some of the shortfall the country’s tech industry will experience due to a lack of access to Western-made lithography equipment. However, it may be some time before those companies catch up with the capacity of their American, Japanese and European rivals. According to an investigation of , Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), China’s sole producer of lithography equipment, manufactures machines capable of printing 90nm node semiconductors. More promising is the work of SMIC, the country’s leading semiconductor maker. last summer started chips and began manufacturing 7nm chips without access to foreign-made equipment.
