Building Resilience through Supply Chain Diversification: A Case Study of Rapidus in Japan’s Semiconductor Strategy Amidst Evolving Geopolitical Tensions

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_61How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Supply Chain Diversification; Resilience; Rapidus; Semiconductor Strategy; Geopolitical Tensions

Abstract

In an era of increasing geopolitical tensions and fragile global supply chains, economically resource-scarce countries such as Japan are very exposed to acute economic risks. In order to build resilience, Japanese firms and the state are now looking for strategies of supply chain diversification. This paper studies this phenomenon by doing a case analysis of Rapidus, a state-backed semiconductor manufacturer created in order to revive the advanced chip production in Japan. Rapidus is a hybrid public-private partnership and an international technology transfer, which targets the production of a 2nm chip. This paper shows that this project is indeed successful in reinforcing the national economic security, stimulating innovation and industrial clusters in the region, but it also has important problems. In fact, the project has a very high fiscal burden, it is still technologically dependent, and has also structural problems. The paper proposes to do performance-linked subsidies, to do a differentiated market strategy, to move to an absorbed internalized innovative technological roadmap, and to make a very digital, integrated, green, resilient cluster. This research can be a strategic recipe, which shows the way to transform the very gravity of the geopolitical risk in a way to revive the industry and to be more competitive in the long run. The case of Rapidus is very important for the other country and the other firm that face this kind of pressure in a technology-intensive, geopolitically sensitive sector.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xinze Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
TI  - Building Resilience through Supply Chain Diversification: A Case Study of Rapidus in Japan’s Semiconductor Strategy Amidst Evolving Geopolitical Tensions
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 8th International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 580
EP  - 590
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_61
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_61
ID  - Li2026
ER  -