Decarbonization drive creates supply chain challenges for Japan Inc

It will only get worse for Japan. They can’t innovate. And they can’t repeat copying and reverse engineering technologies like they did before because there are other cheaper countries doing better than Japan.

Just to stay within the article's topic, one of the inventors of the Li battery and Nobel prize laureate is Dr. Yoshino of Asaki Kasei, the guy who invented organic semiconductors is Prof. Shirakawa of Tsukuba Univ., who also got the Nobel prize, and I could continue

Toyota Motor Corp., the leader in hybrid and hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle development, is aiming to sell 8 million electrified cars globally in 2030

Toyota persists in calling its standard hybrid(HEV) an "electrified car", whereas all the energy used in an HEV comes from gasoline. It just gets better mileage than a standard gasoline engine. As you can read elsewhere (eg https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/12/business/corporate-business/toyota-earnings/) only 2 million will actually be electric vehicles. Not impressive.

It was the US that permanently neutered the Japanese semiconductors industry in the first place. After the neutralization of Japanese semiconductors, the Yanks also shut down Japanese access to Western core technologies (lab access to talent access). Since the 1980s, Japan has been going on an ever-expanding downward spiral.

https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c8717/c8717.pdf

Oh really...... then why doesn Tesla use Panasonic batteries if they're so behind? They even state this towards the end of the article:

The batteries are in fact designed by Tesla with their own technology. Panasonic is hired to manufacture them primarily because they are the only company with the equipment and quality control necessary to make the batteries Tesla designs.