Japan has not manufactured leading-edge logic in twenty years. IIM-1 is the attempt to change that in a single step, skipping the intermediate nodes entirely and going straight to 2 nanometres with a gate-all-around process developed with IBM.
Project Scope
Kajima Corporation oversees construction of the greenfield plant in the Bibi World industrial park at Chitose, next to New Chitose Airport. Ground was broken on 1 September 2023. The cleanroom was completed during 2024 and Japan’s first mass-production-capable EUV scanner, an ASML NXE:3800E, was installed that December. The pilot line began operating in April 2025 and has been running 2nm test wafers since, building the process data behind the PDK. Mass production is targeted for 2027.
Rapidus has not published cleanroom or gross floor area, and we are not going to estimate them. Money is easier to pin down and harder to interpret: a JPY 73 billion initial investment at launch, a JPY 267.6 billion round from government and private companies announced in February 2026, a further JPY 150 billion government round in June 2026, cumulative METI subsidy commitments reported at roughly JPY 2.9 trillion, against a stated JPY 5 trillion requirement to reach volume production. Those figures mix company-level and facility-level scope.
Rapidus gives three reasons for Chitose: expansion land, abundant water and power including renewable potential, and liveability for the workforce it needs to recruit.
Why It Matters
The construction logistics are worth more attention than the transistors. Kajima banned commuter vehicles from the site outright and shuttles workers in by dedicated coach from Minami-Chitose Station and from purpose-built housing at the Izumisawa Industrial Park. Delivery routes were planned to eliminate right turns, cutting congestion and collision exposure on rural roads that were never sized for a fab build. Live construction status runs on public digital signage.
The environmental package is unusually specific for a project with no third-party certification: CO2-SUICOM carbon-absorbing concrete, a formal four-R waste programme with a dedicated zero-emission yard and manifest traceability, site timber chipped into pulp feedstock, biodegradable dust suppressant, tyre washers and pH neutralisers on construction wastewater.
Whether Rapidus makes 2027 is a semiconductor question. Whether a Japanese contractor can build and tool a leading-edge fab on a greenfield rural site in under four years has already been answered.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Rapidus Corporation |
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| Owner / Client | Rapidus Corporation |
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| Consultants | IBM (2nm gate-all-around transistor technology)
imec (Process partnership) |
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| General Contractor | Kajima Corporation |
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| Major Subcontractors | ASML (EUV lithography, NXE:3800E) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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