Murata Manufacturing and other Japanese tech suppliers are cutting their dependence on China as the US-China stand-off deepens.
The world’s largest capacitor maker and an iPhone parts supplier, Murata said in November that it would open a new plant in Thailand in October 2023. In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Murata president Norio Nakajima said the new plant would eventually be expanded to become as large as the one in Wuxi, near Shanghai, where Murata produces multilayer ceramic capacitors for consumer electronics.
Murata, which has depended on greater China for more than half of its revenue, expects the share to go down over time as the company looks to Indo-Pacific for future growth. It is an example of Japan Inc trying to deal with geopolitical risks amid US-China rivalry.
“There is a risk of events happening beyond our control,” such as Washington imposing a…
