日元升值影響日本本土製造業

Recently the Yomiuri News on-live reported the following:
「読売ビジネス・フォーラム２０１１」の第４回会合が１日、札幌市内のホテルで開かれ、経団連副会長の西田厚聡・東芝会長が講演した。
　西田氏は、東芝が円高による生産体制の見直しで、半導体を製造する北九州工場（北九州市）など３工場の閉鎖と生産の一部を海外企業に委託することを決めたことについて言及。「半導体製造には高度な技術を要する『前工程』とパッケージ化する『後工程』があり、前工程は今後も可能な限り日本で持ちこたえ、最先端技術を海外に流出させないようにしていく」と強調した。
　西田氏はまた、韓国政府が半導体メーカーの電気料金を国策で割安にしていることも紹介。「半導体の製造では電力を大量消費する。再生可能エネルギーが増えて原子力発電所が動かずに電気料金が上がると、（工場を）国内にとどめることは微妙になる」と語った。
(試譯文)
The 4th meeting of the "Yomiuri Business Forum 2011" was held in a hotel in Sapporo on the 1st, and Toshiba's chairman Atsutoshi Nishida, as the vice president of the Federation of Economic Organization, gave a speech.
Mr. Nishida made reference to Toshiba's having made the decision of closing three factories such as the Kitakyushu factory (Kitakyushu City) which manufactured semi-conductors and that a part of the production had to be entrusted to overseas firms, after re-examination the production system because of the strong yen. It was emphasized that in the manufacturing of semi-conductors "there are 'initial manufacturing stage' that required advanced technology, and package-ized 'finishing manufacturing stage'. The initial process would be done as much as possible in Japan to avoid the leading-edge technology to continue to flow into the overseas."
Mr. Nishida also introduced that the South Korean government, by its national policy, had made chip makers' electricity bill relatively cheap. And it was said that "the manufacturing of semiconductors needs to consume electric power excessively. If the electricity bill goes up because of an increase in renewable energy and the stoppage of a nuclear power plant, the closure (of factories) at home would become a delicate issue ".


Obviously, the strong yen has a negative impact on the production of high-tech products in Japan.