Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba received a courtesy call from Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm Inc., at the Prime Minister Official Residence on August 26, 2025. This meeting holds important diplomatic significance for deepening strategic cooperation in semiconductors and communications technology between Japan and the United States, and for advancing Japan digital economy policy.
Strategic Importance of Qualcomm Qualcomm is one of the world largest semiconductor design companies, leading the industry in 5G communications technology, AI processing chips, and IoT (Internet of Things) related technologies. The company technologies are utilized across a wide range of fields including smartphones, automobiles, industrial IoT, and data centers, playing a central role in supporting the basic infrastructure of digital society. The company occupies an extremely important position in future technological innovation, particularly in next-generation 6G communication standard development, edge AI technology, and semiconductors for autonomous driving systems.
Context of Japan-US Semiconductor Cooperation This courtesy call was conducted within the major policy framework of the Japan-US semiconductor strategic dialogue that began in earnest in 2025, US semiconductor industry strengthening through the CHIPS Act, and Japan semiconductor and digital industry strategy. Both countries are closely cooperating on joint development of advanced semiconductor technologies, supply chain resilience, and strengthening measures to prevent technology leakage as strategic countermeasures against China semiconductor technology advancement. Cooperation with Qualcomm represents an important private partnership in the concrete realization of this Japan-US technology alliance.
Expected Areas of Investment and Cooperation in Japan Specific areas where cooperation between Qualcomm and the Japanese government and companies is expected include:
- 5G/6G Communications Infrastructure: Next-generation communication technology development and deployment cooperation with NTT Docomo, KDDI, and SoftBank
- Automotive Industry: Autonomous driving and connected car technology development with Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and others
- Industrial IoT: Technology provision for factory automation and smart factory initiatives in manufacturing DX promotion
- AI Semiconductors: Strengthening Japan AI industry competitiveness through edge AI processing capability enhancement
- R&D Centers: Job creation for engineers through establishment and expansion of research and development centers in Japan
Economic Security and Technology Hegemony Competition This meeting also holds important significance from an economic security perspective. Advanced semiconductor technology directly relates to national security as strategic materials, and technology sharing among allied countries and prevention of leakage to third countries is particularly important for military-applicable technologies. Through strengthening cooperation with Qualcomm, Japan can solidify its position as an important partner in the US-led technology alliance and maintain superiority in technology competition with China.
This Japan-US corporate cooperation is also expected to contribute to technology standard unification in the Indo-Pacific region and concrete realization of digital economy cooperation in frameworks such as QUAD (Japan-US-Australia-India) and IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework). Japan is also expected to serve important hub functions in building technology cooperation networks with democratic nations including the EU, UK, and Canada.