Japan put more than a trillion yen behind getting TSMC to build here, and the bet is paying off. The JASM complex in Kikuyo, Kumamoto, run by Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, a TSMC subsidiary with Sony, Denso, and Toyota as partners, now has one fab in mass production and a second rising next to it. The first plant turned its first quarterly profit in early 2026, fast for a facility that only started volume production at the end of 2024.
Project Scope
Fab 1 makes mature and specialty logic chips on 12-, 16-, 22-, and 28-nanometer processes, the workhorse nodes that go into cars, cameras, and industrial gear rather than the bleeding-edge processors that grab headlines. Fab 2, where construction kicked off in late 2025, moves up the ladder. Originally planned for 6-nanometer output, it has since been approved to deploy TSMC’s more advanced 3-nanometer process, with equipment installation and production targeted for 2028. Combined investment across the two plants runs past $20 billion, supported by Japanese government subsidies of roughly 1.2 trillion yen. Kajima Corporation has handled the construction, building cleanroom space at a pace that surprised an industry used to Japanese megaprojects moving deliberately.
Why It Matters
JASM is the centerpiece of Japan’s push to rebuild a domestic chip industry it largely ceded over three decades. For TSMC, it’s geographic insurance, spreading advanced capacity beyond Taiwan as customers and governments press for supply closer to home. The speed is the story within the story: Fab 1 went from groundbreaking to production in about two years, far quicker than comparable builds in the U.S., where projects like Samsung’s Taylor fab have wrestled with timelines and costs.
Whether Kumamoto can repeat that pace on a harder 3-nanometer build is the open question. If it does, the gap between how fast chip fabs go up in Japan and how slowly they rise elsewhere becomes one of the more pointed lessons in modern industrial construction.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM), a TSMC subsidiary |
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| Owner / Client | JASM (TSMC, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Denso, Toyota) |
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| General Contractor | Kajima Corporation |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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