Last June, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) released its Strategy for Semiconductors and the Digital Industry. According to METI, semiconductors are for the digital revolution not what oil was in the 1970s or the steam engine during the industrial revolution - instead they are the "rice of the industry, essential and irreplaceable to all industries" (産業に必要不可欠な産業のコメ). The metaphor combines an evocation of national survival - everyone needs rice to survive - and a vision of Japanese pride, as one of the world’s producers of rice of the highest international standard.
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