US, Europe look to Japan for help in blunting China's tech progress

West concerned that Beijing is harnessing civilian innovation for military purposes

- Walter Sim

With its bullet trains and robots, Japan would not be considered by most people as a tech laggard.

In recent years, however, the traditional tech powerhouse has lost pace in advanced tech such as artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles (EVs) and quantum computing technology. It also lags behind the likes of South Korea and Taiwan in the production of advanced semiconductors.

Nevertheless, the US and its Western allies are expecting Japan to play a bigger role in their "team" efforts against China, as Japan's diplomatic soft power makes it a natural partner for them in Asia.

Japan has consistently ranked as the most trusted nation for South-east Asia, according to an annual ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute survey that polls elites in the region, published on April 2.

Countries in the so-called Global South have also welcomed the proactive diplomacy and outreach of Asia's No. 2 economy.

The US and its Western allies are looking to Japan to step up to the plate in innovation to stymie China's technological progress amid concerns that Beijing is harnessing such civilian innovation for military purposes.

There has been a recent flurry of US investments in Japan.

Microsoft said on April 9 that it was investing US$2.9 billion (S$3.95 billion) in Japan over the next two years, in the company's largest investment in the country, to boost cloud computing and AI infrastructure. ChatGPT developer OpenAI is opening an office in Tokyo on April 15.

Japan is also investing heavily in semiconductors, with 920 billion.

yen (S$8.2 billion) of subsidies already pumped into government-backed chip venture Rapidus and another 1.2 trillion yen for global leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to build two plants in Kumamoto prefecture.