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On April 18, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, the United States and Japan plan to invest 4.5 billion US dollars to compete with China in the next generation of 6G communication technology. It is reported that the leaders of the United States and Japan issued a statement after their meeting in Washington last Friday, saying that the two countries will invest in cybersecurity and the research, development, testing and deployment of new information and communication technologies. This plan invested 2.5 billion US dollars, 2 billion US dollars.

The statement’s call for “secure and open” 5G networks, including the advancement of Open-RAN, an open radio access network, reflects the intent of the leaders of the United States and Japan to create an alternative to China-dominated communications networks.

Open-RAN is an open source platform that allows network operators to mix and match hardware from different vendors without having to have complete antenna and base station systems.

In terms of 5G patents, U.S. leader Qualcomm owns about 10 percent of patents, on par with China’s Huawei, but top Japanese firm NTT Docomo owns only about 6 percent, the article said.

Japanese government officials lamented Japan’s late start in the 5G race. “Even if we have better technology, we cannot win the race for market share,” an official said.

In order to avoid the same mistakes, Tokyo is determined to start from 6G in the international arena. In order to increase Japan’s patent share to 10%, a joint organization of industry, government and academia was established at the end of last year.

Japan believes that the development of global standards is crucial to the development of next-generation mobile communication technology, and therefore, Japan believes that cooperation with the United States will help in this regard.

The report also noted that one of the U.S.-Japan goals is to expand U.S.-Japan communications cooperation to “third countries” to facilitate secure connections. Adding partners to U.S.-Japan-led initiatives should aid competition with China to set global standards; advocates for cooperation on sensitive supply chains, including semiconductors.

There are mixed reactions in Japan to the US-Japan cooperation plan.

The head of a Japanese chipmaker welcomed the announcement, saying that if the government were to prepare subsidies to strengthen supply chains in like-minded countries, it could reduce the cost of building and improving infrastructure within Japan.

But the head of another chip-making equipment maker has a different view: “If the U.S. expands sanctions on China, it will be difficult for our business to grow in China, which is the main market for Japanese equipment makers.”

Broad government intervention in the chip market will negatively affect the chip industry, said Yuichi Koshiba of Tokyo-based Boston Consulting Group. “Governments should not try to control global supply chains to serve their own interests,” he said.