South Korea’s SK Hynix is reportedly considering a memory semiconductor manufacturing facility in Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture, with the investment said to run into tens of trillions of won.
Local newspaper The Hankyoreh reported that the project, pending confirmation, would represent the first major production facility set up in Japan by a South Korean chipmaker.
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Miyagi, located in the Tohoku region of Honshu, is among three areas – the others being Kyushu and Hokkaido – that Japanese authorities are positioning as semiconductor hubs.
An industry source, cited anonymously, said SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won had made a recent visit to the region.
According to the translated version of the report, the proposed Miyagi facility would be more modest in size than SK Hynix’s Yongin-Honam cluster in South Korea, where the company is said to be considering further investment on top of what was originally planned.
The Japan site is positioned as a separate overseas production base, distinct from the Yongin-Honam development.
The report framed the move as an early step to build up production capacity, taken against the backdrop of a persistent global shortage of memory chips.
Were the project to go ahead, SK Hynix would become the third overseas firm running a chip manufacturing plant on Japanese soil, joining US-based Micron and Taiwan’s TSMC.
The report further suggested that a Japan-based investment by SK Hynix could add to existing pressure from Washington on Seoul’s government and its chipmakers to build up memory chip manufacturing capacity on US soil.
Elsewhere, it emerged earlier this month that Sony Group and TSMC are preparing to launch mass production of advanced image sensor chips at a facility in Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, backed by an investment of roughly Y1tn ($6.29bn).
Production is expected to start as early as 2029, according to that report, with the venture split roughly 60:40 between Sony and TSMC respectively.
