TOKYO/FUKUOKA, Japan -- Japanese companies involved in the back-end processing that turns semiconductor chips into finished products are joining up to fend off global competition.
Businesses formed an industry group in April, the first of its kind, that now counts about 30 companies as members. Back-end processing is an increasingly important part of semiconductor production, but most Japanese companies are small- and mid-size regional players that are not very competitive. By cooperating on procedures like equipment upgrades, they believe that production costs can be cut by 20%.
