On Monday, industry chief Thierry Breton said the EU and Japan would cooperate more on semiconductors to control crucial defense, electronics, and car technology.
Breton said the EU and Japan would monitor and exchange semiconductor supply chain researchers and engineers. Japanese semiconductor firms seeking EU operations will receive EU support.
“We believe that it’s extremely important to secure the supply chain of semiconductors,” Breton told Reuters in Tokyo.
Japan is subsidizing its chip sector, which excels in materials and equipment but has lost global market share. Last week, a government-backed fund bought photoresist maker JSR Corp (4185.T) for $6.4 billion to consolidate the industry.
Japan-backed Rapidus executives will meet Breton on Tuesday.
“I think it’s really an important initiative and going in the right direction,” he said of the foundry venture.
Rapidus manufactures semiconductors with IBM (IBM.N) and imec.
As the EU aims to reduce its dependence on China, which develops high-tech chips, it is working more with Japan.
“We made it very clear we just want to de-risk,” Breton said.
Breton met Taro Kono, Takeaki Matsumoto, and Fusae Ota for the first EU-Japan Digital Partnership ministerial meeting.
Undersea cable connectivity, semiconductors, cyber security, and other digital economy topics were agreed upon in a joint statement.
At another news conference, Breton asserted AI dominated the argument. He said Brussels would host another meeting in the first half of 2019.