The Historical Mirror of Japan-US Friction under Semiconductor Strategic Competition and the Systematic Comparison of Sino-US Game

Historical Mirror of Japan-US Friction under Semiconductor Strategic Competition and Systematic Comparison of the Sino-US Game As a strategic highland for scientific and technological competition among major powers, the development trajectory of the semiconductor industry profoundly reflects the changes in the international power structure. The superposition of the U.S. technology blockade against China and Japan’s export controls to China has made the Sino-US technology game and the semiconductor trade friction between Japan and the United States in the 80s of the 20th century present a similar historical logic. This paper systematically compares the evolution of the Japan-US trade friction in the semiconductor industry (1970s-1996s) and the Sino-US science and technology game (2018s-2025s), and reveals the shaping mechanism of technological sovereignty iteration and supply chain power reconstruction on the competition pattern of major powers. The research finds that the essence of friction between Japan and the United States is industrial competition under the framework of allies, and the United States forces Japan’s technology to depend on it through market quotas and generalization of security issues. The Sino-US game is characterized by systematic confrontation, with the United States imposing a blockade of the entire industrial chain on China. The difference in response strategies between China and Japan is rooted in the division of technological sovereignty consciousness: Japan has fallen into industrial decline due to security dependence, and China has built an independent technology ecology through asymmetric competition. Finally, it is further proposed that China needs to enhance the resilience of the industrial chain through “regional cooperation + precise countermeasures”, break through the technological blockade through the policy combination of “short-term countermeasures and long-term layout”, focus on disruptive technologies such as third-generation semiconductors to achieve corner overtaking, and finally build a new paradigm for the semiconductor industry, providing a theoretical reference for emerging economies to break through technological dependence. A systematic comparison of the historical mirror of Japan-US friction under semiconductor strategic competition and the Sino-US game.

Keywords: semiconductor, Japan-US trade friction, Sino-US technology game, technological sovereignty iteration, industrial chain reconstruction.

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