U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel listens to a question during an interview with Reuters at the ambassador’s residence in Tokyo, Japan, August 1, 2022. REUTERS/Issei Kato
TOKYO, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Chips, batteries and energy are key areas of cooperation between the United States and Japan as the allies seek to secure supply chains and counter China, Washington’s envoy to Tokyo said.
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has focused on “commercial diplomacy” since he arrived as US ambassador this year, pushing for business alliances in areas of broader economic security significance.
A US company is now looking at a “big potential investment” related to chips in Japan, in what marks the latest collaboration between the countries on semiconductors, Emanuel told Reuters in an interview.
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He declined to elaborate or give a timeline. This may interest you : Saudi Arabia’s ties to the United States and China are not mutually exclusive, the minister said.
“Commercial diplomacy is a big piece of comprehensive economic cooperation and coordination between the United States and Japan,” Emanuel said Monday.
The two countries agreed on Friday to establish a new joint research center for next-generation semiconductors.
Japan has said it will offer as much as 92.9 billion yen ($700 million) to help U.S. firm Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ) and partner Kioxia Holdings boost memory chip output at a Japanese plant . read more
Meanwhile, Tesla supplier ( TSLA.O ) Panasonic Holdings Corp ( 6752.T ) last month chose Kansas as the site for a new battery plant. The deal came together, Emanuel said, after US President Joe Biden spoke with Panasonic executives while in Japan. read more
The cooperation comes as China has used its economic power to pressure other countries, Emanuel said.
“There is a pattern here: if they don’t like what you say politically, they put the muscle on you economically,” he said, citing Japan’s experience more than a decade ago, when Beijing limited rare earth export quotas following a territorial dispute.
In a joint statement on Friday, the ministers from the United States and Japan said they were against “economic coercion”, although they did not name a specific country.
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a news briefing that “the coercive and retaliatory economic practices of the People’s Republic of China are forcing countries into choices that compromise their security, their intellectual property, their economic independence.” read more
China has repeatedly said that it will never use economic coercion against any country and firmly opposes all forms of coercion, political and diplomatic. It accused Washington of engaging in economic coercion in the name of national security.
Emanuel said that if a country is pressured by China, the United States must counter with “economic incentives,” including using energy resources as a “strategic asset.”
Japan, the world’s largest LNG buyer, is a growing market for US natural gas. Between 2018 and 2021, Japanese imports of US LNG will more than double, Japanese government data show. The advanced nuclear reactors known as small modular reactors (SMRs) are another area of cooperation.
Emanuel declined to say whether US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who began a tour of Asia on Monday, would visit Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by Beijing. read more
Concerns about Chinese tensions with Taiwan, which makes the majority of semiconductors below 10 nanometers used in smartphones, have driven countries such as the United States and Japan to increase investment in chip production.
Emanuel said there should also be more investment in training skilled workers to support the chip industry.
“We both need to invest in more scientists, more engineers and in workers to do this,” he said.
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Reporting by David Dolan and Yukiko Toyoda; Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Edited by Alexander Smith
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