ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the role government and lawyers have played in the development of Japan’s semiconductor/computer (SC) industry in Japan. The development in the US reminds the author of a perspective on political structures used by Halliday in his comparative analysis of the relationship between lawyers and government. The US government in fact has had several national projects to promote the SC industry since the late 1970s. They include the Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit project started by the Defense Department in 1979, the MIMIC project also started by the Defense Department in 1986, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation established in 1982, and SEMATECH established in 1987. The chapter presents a historical sketch of the development of the Japanese SC industry, emphasizing specific laws and policies adopted by the Japanese government for protection or promotion of the industry and legal disputes with American companies.
