SEMICONDUCTOR BOOM
Taiwan’s TSMC opened its factory in Kumamoto’s Kikuyo town in February 2024, under the name Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing. It is a joint venture with Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Denso, and Toyota as partners.
A second fabrication plant is under construction, though local media have reported that work has been paused as design changes are considered.
The total investment in the plants, estimated at more than US$20 billion, is the largest the prefecture has ever received. Kumamoto is now pushing for a third TSMC plant.
Kumamoto governor Takashi Kimura said the TSMC plant has triggered a semiconductor boom, attracting around 70 related firms and creating more than 6,000 jobs.
“The number of jobs increased by several thousand, but this is taking place in what has been a very rural town,” he noted.
“Without roads and infrastructure fully developed, the fabrication plant was completed. Around there, roads are congested. These are matters to be resolved.”
To meet growing demand for skilled workers, new training facilities have sprung up.
Nisso Technical Center Kumamoto opened just two months after TSMC’s factory, offering programmes to train new hires and career switchers in semiconductor manufacturing.
It has even set up a mock fabrication facility, complete with protective gear, sanitisation procedures and machines used in real production lines.
The training centre said it saw an opportunity to fill the need for trained workers.
“TSMC is one (of the reasons). There are also Sony and other semiconductor makers coming here, so we set up targeting them,” said Osamu Kyan, director of its human resources development division.
“They especially lack those (workers) with moderate experience – those in between newcomers and veteran workers.”
More than a thousand people have already passed through its programmes.
“I want to make products that satisfy customers and create made-in-Japan products,” said trainee Shogo Yoshioka.
Source: CNA
