Japan on Friday unveiled plans to control exports of 23 items used to make semiconductors, after the Netherlands implemented similar restrictions this month, prompting a rebuke from China.
“The announced measure is aimed at complementing efforts to avoid the military diversion of technologies,” a trade ministry official in the export control division told AFP.
The ministry will now solicit public opinion on the measures, which are expected to come into force from July, according to local media.
Recent years have seen a ratcheting up of tensions in the global market for microchips, with Western officials raising the alarm over the provision of core components to increasingly adversarial trading partners.
The Dutch government announced its plans for new export rules following pressure from the United States to restrict Chinese access to the technology.
Japan had been expected to take similar steps with its ally Washington also reportedly urging the country to impose controls.
The United States in October announced export measures aimed at restricting China’s ability to buy and manufacture high-end chips with military applications.
They included restrictions on some chips used in supercomputing as well as stricter requirements on the sale of semiconductor equipment.
At the time, the US commerce department said those moves were to prevent “sensitive technologies with military applications” from being acquired by China’s military, intelligence and security services.
In response, China filed a dispute with the World Trade Organisation accusing Washington of threatening global supply chains.
And it called the Dutch move the result of “bullying and hegemony” by the West.
AFP
