Japanese Companies That Excel in Semiconductor Supply Chain

choi

Takashi Mochizuki and Yuki Furukawa, TSMC's Container Maker is Hidden Jewel of Japan’s Chip Industry. Bloomberg, Mar 19, 2023.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a ... pan-s-chip-industry
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News ... 23/03/21/2003796435

Note:
(a)
(i) Bloomberg places the report behind paywall.
(ii) Not having read the (Bloomberg) original, I wish to inform you
(A) that at the end of paragraph 3, a version is "according to Ichiyoshi Research Institute analyst Mitsuhiro Osawa" instead of "Ichiyoshi Research Institute analyst Mitsuhiro Osawa said" (as appears in the reproduction of Taipei Times); and
(B) that there is an additional at the very end that the Taipei Times version does not have: "The company has products that are hard to match, and it’s launching multiple maintenance-and-check services that should add to the top line," Osawa said. "What it needs is just more recognition by investors."
(iii) The summary in Bloomberg.com underneath the title:
"• Valqua’s extremely clean storage tanks are built to order
• Company says Japan becoming ideal place for chip supply chain"
(iv) Takashi MOCHIZUKI  望月 崇  (ja.wikipedia.org says in its disambiguation page that 望月 is "満月の異称." Indeed the first part of Mochizuki is mochi which is not 望, but mochi 餅
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi  
(made of glutinous rice)

The kanji 月 has Japanese pronunciation tsuki, which is softened to zuki as the word is not in the first position of a compound word.
(v) Yuki FURUKAWA  古川 有希 (female; yuki usually is a noun represented by kanji 雪)


(b)
(i) Valqua Ltd  バルカー (katakana for "Valqua")

VALQUA 社名の由来. Valqua Ltd, undated
https://www.valqua.co.jp/company/value-quality/
("「Value & Quality」、当社の社名はこの2つの言葉を併せたもの")

my rough translation: Value & Quality, name of this company ca,e from combination of these two words.
(ii) "Valqua president Yoshihiro Hombo"
役員一覧. https://www.valqua.co.jp/company/companyexecutive/
("取締役[:]
代表取締役会長CEO※　        瀧澤 利一
代表取締役社長COO※　        本坊 吉博
* * *
※CEO＝最高経営責任者
※COO＝最高執行責任者")
(A) 本坊 吉博 is Yoshihiro HOM-BŌ.
(B) In Japanese, generally speaking 会長 is chairman of the board and 社長, CEO. However, corporate governance in the West has executive chairperson that is akin to 瀧澤 利一's position. See chairperson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairperson
(section 2 Roles and responsibilities, section 2.2 Powers and authority; section 3 Public corporations, section 3.2 Executive chairperson)

(c) "Ichiyoshi Research Institute analyst Mitsuhiro Osawa"
(i) Ichiyoshi Research Institute Inc 株式会社いちよし経済研究所 (1987- ; based in Tokyo)
Its website says in the Web page titled "活動内容":
"いちよし経済研究所は、いちよし証券グループのリサーチ部門として、中小型成長企業および新興市場企業を調査、分析し、その情報を投資家に提供することを主な業務としています。"

my rough translation: Ichiyoshi Research Institute is research arm of Ichiyoshi Stock Group. Its main business is research and analysis on small- and medium-sized businesses and emerging market, which is then provided to investors.
(ii) いちよし証券株式会社 (1944- ; now Ichiyoshi written in hiragana) was once 一吉證券株式会社 (company written in kanji).

(d) "Disco Corp, for instance, is the industry’s go-to supplier of silicon wafer cutters, while JSR Corp provides the high-purity chemicals that Valqua stores at chip plants."
(i) Disco Corporation  株式会社ディスコ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Corporation
("The company was founded as Daiichi-Seitosho [第一製砥所 (to make industrial whetstones/ grindstones 砥; what it made were abrasive wheels)] in * * * 1937")
(ii) JSR Corp  JSR株式会社

JSR
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSR
("1957年、合成ゴムの国産化を目指して政府および関連民間企業の出資（出資比率は政府40%、民間企業60%）によって設立された国策会社・日本合成ゴム株式会社を前身とする。1969年に完全民営化し、事業の多角化を進める。創立40周年を迎えた1997年、現社名（日本合成ゴム株式会社の英文社名 Japan Synthetic Rubber Co.,Ltd.に由来）に商号変更した")

my rough translation: In 1957, Japan aims to produce rubber domestically, and set up a company (capital: government 40% and private sector 60%) that was 日本合成ゴム株式会社. When the company reached 40 years old in 1997, it changed the name to JSR -- the initials of company name in English.