Sony and Kioxia seek US approval to bypass Huawei ban
TOKYO -- Japan's Sony and memory chipmaker Kioxia have applied for U.S. approval to restart supplies of components to China's Huawei Technologies, now under a de facto ban on accessing equipment made with American tech, Nikkei has learned.
There was no indication as of Saturday that their applications had been approved. The Japanese companies join South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in seeking licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce to sell to Huawei, one of the world's top makers of smartphones and telecommunication infrastructure.
Without Commerce Department approval, Sony and Kioxia face a risk to their earnings. The two companies supply components for products, such as 5G devices, that have become caught up in the high-tech race between the U.S. and China.
Sony ranks as the world's top supplier by market share of image sensors for mobile phones. Huawei is estimated to account for about a fifth of the Japanese company's roughly 1 trillion yen ($9.5 billion) in image sensor sales, making it the second-biggest buyer, after Apple.
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Kioxia, a spinoff of Toshiba formerly known as Toshiba Memory, also stands to take a hit from sanctions on Huawei. Smartphone memory chips provide about 40% of the company's sales, with Huawei accounting for several percent of the total.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Huawei-crackdown/Sony-and-Kioxia-seek-US-approval-to-bypass-Huawei-ban
Japan must be open for business to both US and China: Nidec CEO
KYOTO, Japan -- One of Japan's most outspoken CEOs, motor manufacturer Nidec's Shigenobu Nagamori, knows a few things about balance.
The company he founded has investments across Asia, Europe and the U.S., and has continued to build up its presence in China despite the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
With export-dependent Japan caught in the middle, Nagamori told Nikkei in a recent interview that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's new government needs to take the same even-handed approach to the two countries that his predecessor Shinzo Abe did.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Japan-must-be-open-for-business-to-both-US-and-China-Nidec-CEO
Nidec is the world's largest manufacturer of tiny electric motors used in disk drives, appliances, automotive power options, etc.
