HackerTube.dev

How Japan Learned Semiconductors

Asianometry · 228.5K views · 2022-06-05 · 17:49

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Asianometry traces the 30-year rise and peak of Japan's semiconductor industry from the 1950s to the 1980s, covering how a postwar country gained competence in an emerging technology.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as an excellent history of how Japan entered chips, including government-coordinated cooperation like the VLSI project.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2022–2023

Topics

Semiconductors & chip manufacturingTech industry & business modelsHistory of computing
Search by tags
asianometryvlsi projectsemiconductorsindustrial policyjapan

What people said

dijonman2 · 2022-06 · Recommendation

Chip manufacturing is difficult, this reminds me of the Japanese entry into the semiconductor market. There is an excellent video on this for anyone interested in Japanese culture and the war against USA via semiconductors: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
amrb · 2023-04 · Reference

Japan did have the VLSI project a group of there largest companies: [VIDEO] For Europe I could see a bigger group of companies, schools and researchers working towards open models with funding. This would allow EU companies to be competitive with the US while not duplicating effort, more eyes on the problem too. Maybe alignment work could be a goal, since the driver is not profit at any cost this time.

Read the original HN comment ↗
kalleboo · 2022-08 · Reference

Japan's original chip industry lead was created by the government funding a bunch of also-rans to cooperate (and have each participant focus on one part of the job) instead of compete (where every team is spread too thin trying to do the whole hog) [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Asianometry, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources