Japan will help the US restrict the production of chips in China

Japan has announced restrictions on the export of 23 types of equipment used in the production of semiconductors, which aligns with the US’s efforts to limit China’s ability to produce modern microchips, according to Reuters. Japan has large manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment such as Nikon and Tokyo Electron, but it did not single out China as the target of such restrictions.

The move is being viewed as a significant victory for the US, which began implementing wide-ranging restrictions on access to its own microchip production technology last year to slow down China’s technological and military progress.

However, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sees such measures as politicisation and the use of economic and technological problems as a weapon to artificially disrupt global production and supply chains.

Both the Netherlands and Japan have joined the US in limiting exports of chipmaking equipment to China but have not announced any agreement publicly to avoid provoking China further.