For Japan, a lot rides on a hulking mass of steel and concrete taking shape in a field on the island of Hokkaido.
It also depends to a certain extent on the will of one man, a veteran athlete and part-time thrill-seeker who has to turn this improbable project into an advanced chip factory that could help reverse the country’s declining fortunes and play a key role in the Great Game of the 21st century.
The venture is in part driven by cold calculation involving the biggest of numbers in terms of money and the smallest of measurements when it comes to computer chips. It is also driven by powerful nostalgia and tempting echoes from the roaring '80s, when Japanese companies led the world in the making of semiconductors.
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