The first Transpacific Collaboration Forum
Friday February 27; highlighting Taiwan-Japan-US semiconductor collaboration
Friends,
I’m over a year into my project assessing Japan’s reinvestment in its semiconductor industry and the surrounding economic security strategy. And now, the project is bearing fruit!
First, as background for new readers: with support from UC Berkeley Risk and Security Lab, the Institute for Business Innovation at the Haas School of Business, and the UC Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies, as well as support from METI, JETRO, the Consulate of Japan in San Francisco, and local university partners and hosts, I’ve been conducting stakeholder interviews since late 2024. The project got off to a soft start in summer 2024.
Below are two past posts:
A project introduction and visit to Kumamoto, Kyushu, and Chitose, Hokkaido (May/June 2025); and
after Semicon Japan, in December 2025.
Plus, a visit to AIST in January 2026.
And now, a year in, our project is starting to bear fruit.
UC Berkeley Risk and Security Lab and the Japan Society of Northern California, with support from the Institute for Business Innovation at Berkeley Haas, have partnered to host the first Transpacific Collaboration Forum, to highlight collaboration across semiconductor supply chains between Japan, Taiwan, and the US. It’s happening Friday February 27 at the University of California, Berkeley.
Read enough? Register here 👉https://luma.com/cm7udiwd
Want to know more?
✅ Want 40 years of perspective on the semiconductor revolution? The President of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Taiwan will provide just that. He’ll be in fireside with UCB CIEO Darren Cooke.
✅What policies have propelled Japan’s on-shoring and augmentation of capacity, and movement up the technology frontier in semis? What’s next after shoring up on-shore capacity? Kazumi Nishikawa of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will share insights, and will sit in fireside with Ohta Yasuhiko, of Hokkaido University and author of the Geopolitics of Semiconductors: 2030.
✅ What’s automotive silicon, and how do semiconductors power mobility? Yoshifumi Kato, former CTO of DENSO will share his insights in a keynote.
✅ Curious about the shift to silicon photonics (NTT IOWN)? Japan’s new Rapidus logic foundry and their go-to-market? Creative and efficient paths to market for edge AI chips? Our new supply chains panel, with moderator Jay Goldberg (add Substack handle) and Kazu Gomi of NTT Research, Henri Richard from Rapidus, and Sakyasingha Dasgupta from EdgeCortix will discuss.
✅ Wondering why TSMC chose Kumamoto for its first Japan fab, what supply chain benefits that has had, and how Kumamoto is investing in human capital and research to meet the moment? I’ll discuss that with Prof Masato Miyake of Kumamoto University, and Yoshifumi Kato of DENSO in his role as JASM (TSMC Japan JV) stakeholder. 👉 Prof Miyake and team and I are teaming on a joint paper assessing the Kumamoto semiconductor ecosystem, which will be made available at the event. Emiko Higashi, board member at various semiconductor firms, will moderate.
It’s all happening Friday February 27 from 2-6pm at the University of California, Berkeley Clark Kerr campus. Doors open 1:30pm.
Here’s our event link. (No, we are not streaming it.)
Register here 👉 https://luma.com/cm7udiwd
Our event is presented with the generous support from National Association of Japan-America Societies, Inc. and its Japan Currents program.
Hope to see you there!
Jon