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On March 31, 2023, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (“METI”) initiated a public comment procedure for the Draft Amendment to Ministerial Ordinance and the Draft Amendment to Circular that is intended to impose new export control requirements on certain sensitive semiconductor manufacturing equipment from Japan. The public comment period is from March 31st, 2023 to April 29, 2023. Anyone can submit a comment through either (i) the Japanese government’s website, (ii) email, or (iii) mail.

Overview of the Draft Amendment to Ministerial Ordinance

The draft amendment to Ministerial Ordinance identifies specific goods and technologies that will be controlled.

The newly controlled items include semiconductor manufacturing equipment, test equipment, and masks or reticles used for the manufacture of integrated circuits, or components or accessories thereof. Programs that are designed to use those items will also be controlled.

In addition, pellicle specifically designed for equipment for manufacturing integrated circuits using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) will be controlled as well.

Overview of the Draft Amendment to Circular

The proposed amendment to the circular further identifies specifications of some of the newly controlled items.

It also clarifies that companies may apply for a special bulk license to export the newly controlled items to “non-white list” countries, including China. The bulk license cannot be used to export the newly controlled items to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Central Africa, Belarus, South Sudan, Libya, Lebanon, or Russia.

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If you have any questions concerning the new export control regulations in Japan, please feel free to contact the experts in this blog.

Author

Kana Itabashi is a member of the Corporate/M&A practice group at the Firm's Tokyo office and a member of Global International Commercial & Trade practice group. Kana has over twenty years of legal experience and has broad experience advising multinational companies in various industries on international trade and cross border commercial issues, including trade remedies, export control, sanctions, import/export regulatory issues, as well as highly regulated commercial agreements.
Prior to joining the firm, she worked as a junior accountant at a major auditing firm, where she mainly performed accounting audits for listed companies, etc. From 2007 to 2009, she was seconded to the principal investment department of a major Japanese securities company, where she was involved in private equity investments, emissions trading and various other investment projects.

Author

Junko Suetomi is a partner in Baker McKenzie Tokyo. Prior to joining the Firm, she worked in the WTO Dispute Settlement Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Economic Bureau. She has also worked for a global law firm in Washington, DC and New York, and served as a court-appointed defense attorney in many criminal cases. Junko is recognized as a leading lawyer by Marquis Who's Who, Asia Business Law Journal, Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific, Best Lawyers, Who's Who Legal and other legal directories. She was the chair from 2019 to 2021 and now is vice chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Tokyo Bar Association and a part-time lecturer at Waseda University. She was a legal advisor to the Ministry of Finance Japan's Office of Trade Remedy Affairs, Tariff Policy and Legal Division, Customs and Tariff Bureau from 2016 to 2019. She has served as a bar examiner of the Ministry of Justice since November 2020. She has served as an expert member of the Ministry's Council on Customs, Tariff, Foreign Exchange and Other Transactions since 13 March 2019. She has served as an expert member of the Financial Services Agency's Financial System Council, Fund Settlement System Working Group since October 11, 2021. She also holds a Certificate in Business Analytics from the Harvard Business Analytics Program (March 2021).

Author

Izumi Matsumoto is a member of the Corporate/M&A practice groups in the Firm’s Tokyo office. Prior to joining the Firm, he worked at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry from 2007 to 2020. There, he was mainly engaged in the Japan-EU EPA negotiation, the Japan-US-EU trilateral subsidies agreement negotiation, several WTO dispute settlement cases, and the Brexit issue.

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