Region
Hokkaido & Tohoku Semiconductor Region
Northern Japan combines one of the country's newest chip projects with long-established memory and sensor fabs. In Hokkaido, Rapidus is building its 2 nm fab, IIM-1, in Chitose, the same city as a SUMCO wafer plant.
- Fabs4
- Other company sites9
- Prefectures6
Overview
In Tohoku, Kioxia produces 3D NAND flash in Kitakami, Iwate, and Sony makes image sensors in Tsuruoka, Yamagata. Tokyo Electron's Tohoku site in Oshu, Iwate, and wafer and power-device plants in Yamagata, Fukushima and Aomori complete the supply base.
Fabs and company sites in Hokkaido & Tohoku, by prefecture
Hokkaido
3
Iwate
3
Yamagata
3
Aomori
2
Fukushima
1
Miyagi
1
Fabs
- Rapidus IIM-1 Chitose, HokkaidoRapidus · 2 nm logic (in development)
Pilot line started in 2025; mass production targeted for 2027.
- Kitakami Plant Kitakami, IwateKioxia (with SanDisk) · 3D NAND flash (BiCS FLASH)
- Yamagata Technology Center Tsuruoka, YamagataSony Semiconductor Manufacturing · CMOS image sensors
- Fuji Electric Tsugaru Semiconductor AomoriFuji Electric · Power semiconductor devices
Acquired from Renesas in 2012.
Equipment, materials and other company sites
- Tokyo Electron (TEL): Tohoku site (Oshu, Iwate)Coat/develop, etch and deposition equipment
- Shin-Etsu Chemical: Shirakawa plant (Shirakawa, Fukushima)Silicon wafers, photoresists and photomask blanks
- SUMCO: Yonezawa plant (Yonezawa, Yamagata)Silicon wafers
- SUMCO: Chitose plant (Chitose, Hokkaido)Silicon wafers
- Kioxia: Kitakami plant (Kitakami, Iwate)NAND flash memory and SSDs
- Rapidus: IIM-1 (Chitose, Hokkaido)Leading-edge logic foundry (2 nm, in development)
- Sony Semiconductor Solutions: Yamagata Technology Center (Tsuruoka, Yamagata)CMOS image sensors
- Fuji Electric (power semiconductors): Fuji Electric Tsugaru Semiconductor (Aomori)IGBT modules and SiC power devices
- CKD: Tohoku Plant (Ohira, Miyagi)Process gas regulators and fluid control components
Sources
- Wikipedia: Rapidus
- Wikipedia: Kioxia
- Wikipedia (Japanese): Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing
- Wikipedia (Japanese): Fuji Electric
- Tokyo Electron official website
- Shin-Etsu Chemical official website
- SUMCO official website
- Kioxia official website
- Rapidus official website
- Wikipedia: Sony Semiconductor Solutions
- Fuji Electric Review (power semiconductors)
- CKD: official website
Semiconductor regions of Japan
Last updated: October 22, 2026