Japan's Rapidus project, which brings together some of the world's biggest companies, is the "last opportunity" to put the country's once-dominant semiconductor sector back on the global map, its chairman warned.
And, while the company has the financial firepower of the government behind it, Tetsuro Higashi said in an interview that he was under no illusions about the challenges ahead.
"The entire world is becoming digitized. It is becoming crucially important for Japan to build a very strong digital technology industry," said Higashi, an industry veteran and ex-president of Tokyo Electron, a major producer of tools to make chips.