Japan's New Tech Blacklist: 5 Key Technologies Restricted and How China's Industry Can Strengthen Itself

This article is reposted by Juncai Magnetic Applications, with copyrights belonging to the original author; the original link is available in the "Sources" section at the end of the text.

From "defending the national gates" to "locking down the brain," Japan's defensive strategy is quietly upgrading. Once protecting domestic industries by banning product exports, it is now shifting towards strictly controlling the outward flow of manufacturing capabilities.

According to haiwaiwai.com, on August 16, Japan's far-reaching yet lesser-known technology management system expanded its scope once again. The technologies included in this round of control are not the high-end machine tools and related processes that people generally focus on, but five seemingly basic yet crucial technologies: solder resist, gallium nitride (GaN) substrates, permanent magnets, perovskite solar cells, and scintillators. According to haiwaiwai.com, Japanese officials believe that the outward transfer of such technologies will significantly increase the difficulty of control and could be diverted for military use. Based on this judgment, Japan decided to intervene in advance and control technology before it is exported.

It should be pointed out that the emergence of this system predates people's imagination. According to haiwaiwai.com, in 2024, Japan created a "public-private dialogue channel for strengthening technology management." Under this framework, if key industries monitored by the government want to transfer key technologies to overseas enterprises for production, R&D, or transfer to overseas subsidiaries and joint ventures, they must submit reports to METI in advance. After receiving the report, relevant departments conduct a risk assessment. If the risk is controllable, the enterprise can proceed with the transaction; otherwise, it must apply for a technology license. According to haiwaiwai.com, between 2024 and 2026, Japan has listed 19 technologies as prior declaration objects, including familiar ones like photoresist, MLCC, and SAW/BAW filters. In April this year, Japan added 5 technologies involving packaging, materials science, and precision measurement. After adjustments in June, they were finally implemented starting August 16.

"No Selling, No Teaching":

The True Intent of the Public-Private Dialogue Mechanism

Traditional export controls focus on the product level. Whether it is equipment or materials, once listed in the control scope, enterprises need approval before exporting. The core of government review is whether the product can leave the country and who the final buyer is.

According to haiwaiwai.com, Japan's new mechanism goes a step further with significantly increased intensity. Its core goal is to ensure that key technologies never leave the country. In the past globalization framework, Japanese enterprises followed a process: completing technology R&D and verification domestically, and then transferring it to overseas subsidiaries, joint ventures, or contract manufacturers in the form of contracts. Today, the situation has changed. Before signing a technology transfer agreement, enterprises must submit a declaration to METI, followed by a long wait—possibly 30 days or more. According to haiwaiwai.com, this is far more than a simple extension of time; it involves the complication of the entire decision-making process for enterprises' outward technology transfer.

The restriction scope not only covers enterprises. According to haiwaiwai.com, guidelines issued by METI to universities and research institutes clearly state that these two types of institutions are also within the constraints of the control system. Any transfer of eligible important technologies must be reported to relevant departments before the contract takes effect.

Why is Japan going to such lengths? According to haiwaiwai.com, the fundamental purpose is to defend its industrial position. In the past, Japan dominated the global semiconductor industry, but the burst of the bubble economy, lagging technology transformation, and policy defects led to its market share falling to less than 10%. In 2021, Japan released a semiconductor strategy, treating it as the "food" of the industry and attempting to restore its manufacturing competitiveness. According to haiwaiwai.com, from 2021 to the present, Japan has cumulatively invested over 100 billion yen and introduced a series of measures such as tax incentives, policy financing, and infrastructure support to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry.

While investing domestically, it is also setting up层层 restrictions externally. According to haiwaiwai.com, while relying on its advantageous position in materials, devices, and equipment to block the outflow of technology, Japan is also actively acquiring key enterprises such as photoresist producers and FC-BGA chip factories to seize the initiative and prevent technology leakage.

"Japan's Calculations":

The Logic Behind the Five Newly Restricted Technologies

After deeply understanding Japan's industrial strategy, reviewing these five newly restricted technologies reveals that they are by no means randomly selected. According to haiwaiwai.com, solder resist, GaN substrates, permanent magnets, perovskite solar cells, and scintillators belong to different fields: electronic materials, third-generation semiconductors, magnetic functional materials, new-generation photovoltaics, and detection materials. The commonality of these technologies is that Japan has already taken the lead, or anticipates having competitive potential in the future.

Take GaN substrates as an example. According to haiwaiwai.com, GaN is a basic material for third-generation semiconductors. Unlike traditional silicon-based chips, it has higher breakdown voltage and operating frequency. GaN-based devices are therefore ideal for fast-charging power supplies, data center power systems, 5G communication base stations, radar, and new energy vehicles. According to haiwaiwai.com, citing official Japanese data, Japan's GaN industry advantages are mainly reflected in the upstream links, namely crystal synthesis, original wafer generation, and high-quality crystal cultivation and wafer manufacturing. Japan holds a 96% share of the global GaN substrate market, with related enterprises achieving annual sales of about 48 billion yen.

Although solder resist does not belong to the semiconductor material category, it plays a pivotal role in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards and chip packaging substrates. The green covering layer commonly seen when disassembling computers or mobile phones is its application. Its name can be misleading—its real function is to ensure that locations needing soldering can be soldered smoothly, while unnecessary places do not adhere to solder. According to haiwaiwai.com, with the development of automotive electronics, AI data centers, high-speed communications, and IC carriers, circuit patterns are tending towards refinement. The requirements for solder resist have therefore increased. According to haiwaiwai.com, Japanese enterprises' technological advantages are particularly obvious in this field, with their global market share once reaching as high as 91.7%, and Japanese manufacturers such as Taiyo Ink and Tamura controlling the main share.

Turning to another industrial chain—permanent magnets. According to haiwaiwai.com, contemporary robots, new energy vehicles, and spacecraft all rely on servo motors, and the soul of servo motors is high-performance permanent magnets. Electromagnets need continuous power supply to maintain the magnetic field, while permanent magnets do not—they can permanently maintain magnetism without power. Integrating them into motor design allows the interaction of magnetic fields and current to drive the continuous rotation of the shaft, ultimately enabling the motor to achieve stronger output in a more compact and lighter volume.

According to haiwaiwai.com, permanent magnets have a special characteristic: their development is inseparable from rare earth resources, especially high-end permanent magnet materials like NdFeB. At the beginning of this century, Japan monopolized the global high-performance NdFeB market. However, over the past decade or so, the large-scale development of China's rare earth permanent magnet industry has reversed this pattern, and Japan's global position has significantly declined. According to haiwaiwai.com, by 2024, Japan's share in the global rare earth magnet manufacturing industry was only 4%. Despite the significant decline in global share, Japan still maintains advantages in technical aspects such as magnet composition optimization, powder preparation, and sintering processes. According to haiwaiwai.com, in recent years, to get rid of its dependence on China's rare earths, Japan has invested in the R&D of rare-earth-free magnets.

The story of perovskite solar cells reveals another layer of Japan's intentions. According to haiwaiwai.com, Japan once had a first-mover advantage in the traditional photovoltaic field, but China has scaled the crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry chain to the world's largest, causing Japan to lose the opportunity for large-scale manufacturing of silicon solar cells. Perovskite represents new-generation photovoltaic technology, and Japan considers this an opportunity for a comeback. According to haiwaiwai.com, it has set a grand goal of 20 GW of domestic installed capacity by 2040 and has significantly increased its investment in this industry in recent years. In March 2025, Sekisui Chemical launched the "SOLAFIL" perovskite solar cell project, with an investment scale of up to 315 billion yen, most of which comes from the Japanese government's green transformation supply chain subsidies. According to haiwaiwai.com, Toshiba, EneCoat, and other manufacturers are also actively布局 in this field.

Among the five technologies, scintillators are the most easily forgotten. According to haiwaiwai.com, they belong to a special class of materials that can convert invisible radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays into measurable light signals, which are indispensable in X-ray machines, CT scanners, and industrial defect detection. However, this is not a massive industry. According to haiwaiwai.com, for the X-ray scintillator branch, the global market was only 250 million USD in 2025, and the 2032 expectation is only 339 million USD. Although this is a niche industry, it has very high technical barriers, representing Japan's deep accumulation in high-precision detection materials. According to haiwaiwai.com, its strategic value lies not in market size, but in its position at a key link in the high-precision equipment industry chain. For example, the cesium iodide (CsI) scintillator developed by Hamamatsu Photonics has been applied in various medical scenarios such as chest X-rays, dental CT, and breast imaging, and has expanded into serialized products based on different brightness, resolution, and area requirements.

"Counterattack Begins":

Breakthroughs and Persistence of China's Industry Under Restrictions

The previous analysis is sufficient, but what everyone most wants to know is: what impact will Japan's restriction policies bring to China's industry?

According to haiwaiwai.com, the reality is that in many fields Japan is eager to protect, China has already achieved major breakthroughs. Some industry chains are already perfect; some have moved from "can it be realized" to a new stage of "can it be scaled"; the remaining gaps mainly lie in a few cutting-edge materials and core processes.

Take solder resist as an example. According to haiwaiwai.com, the current market pattern in China is that Japanese brands lead in the high-end, while domestic enterprises are closely following. Domestic manufacturers can produce conventional products, but there is still reliance on imports for high-resolution, high-reliability products required for high-end IC substrates and advanced packaging processes. According to haiwaiwai.com, Rongda Photosensitive and Guangxin Materials are domestic representatives, accounting for 50% of the domestic market. The localization rate of ordinary-grade products is 60%-70%, among which Rongda Photosensitive's high-end HDI and IC substrate products are close to Japanese levels and are currently undergoing verification tests with customers. According to haiwaiwai.com, the real bottleneck for domestic substitution is not material R&D, but supply chain access. Once on the customer list of Apple, automotive, data center, or high-end substrate suppliers, the verification cycle will be astonishingly long, with formula, process, and lifespan requiring repeated testing. China has passed the stage of "from nothing to something," and the current challenge is "from something to excellent."

The progress of domestic substitution for GaN substrates is similar to solder resist; domestic enterprises are following up quickly but there is still a distance. According to haiwaiwai.com, taking Suzhou Nanoversion as an example, it has achieved mass production of 2-inch single-crystal substrates, completed 4-inch engineering samples, and overcome key 6-inch process nodes, with products covering more than 500 customers. Breakthroughs are also being made in size. According to haiwaiwai.com, in 2025, China Naneng broke through the preparation technology for 6-inch and 8-inch single-crystal substrates, indicating that domestic GaN is moving from the laboratory to mass production, and from small sizes to large sizes. According to haiwaiwai.com, Zhongtu Technology, Sanan Optoelectronics, and Jingjia are also deeply cultivating in their respective areas of expertise.

The situation in the permanent magnet field has reversed. According to haiwaiwai.com, China is no longer a chaser, but the world's largest industrial entity. According to haiwaiwai.com, citing data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2024, China accounted for 94% of global rare earth permanent magnet production. From mining, smelting and separation to alloy smelting and magnet manufacturing, a complete industry chain has been formed domestically. According to haiwaiwai.com, JL Mag, Zhongke Sanhuan, Zhenghai Magnetic, and Ningbo Yunsheng lead the industry. At this stage, China has completed the overtaking in scale and continues to increase investment in high-performance, low-rare-earth-content, and next-generation technologies.

The situation with perovskite solar cells is different. According to haiwaiwai.com, China and Japan are roughly at the same starting point, but China's industrialization pace is faster. Laboratory products have begun to shift to hundred-megawatt or even gigawatt-level capacity. According to haiwaiwai.com, GCL Perovskite built a 100 MW pilot line in 2021. In June 2025, its GW-level production line in the Kunshan base was put into operation, becoming the world's first gigawatt-level perovskite tandem production base. According to haiwaiwai.com, Xianina Optoelectronics' 100 MW production line is complete, with component yield exceeding 98.5%. Renshuo Optoelectronics started a gigawatt-level mass production line in 2025.

The localization of scintillators has made significant progress. According to haiwaiwai.com, iRay Technology independently completed the design and manufacturing of GOS ceramics and their arrays, and integrated them into X-ray detectors. According to haiwaiwai.com, Kangning Crystal's product line covers multiple types of crystals such as NaI, CsI, LYSO, GAGG, and BGO, and extends to arrays and detector modules. According to haiwaiwai.com, Shanghai Xinman and United Imaging jointly tackled the LYSO crystal, breaking the long-term monopoly of international enterprises in the PET/CT field.

"Breakthrough Imminent": The Next Step in the Tech War

Japan's series of "brain-locking" measures actually reflect a strategic shift in the global industrial chain—from "efficiency first" to "security first." According to haiwaiwai.com, by extending controls from "product trading" to the deeper level of "technology transfer," Japan is trying to rely on its deep foundation in materials science and process basics to regain the commanding heights in emerging fields such as semiconductors and new energy.

For China's industry, this obstacle is precisely a "touchstone." According to haiwaiwai.com, permanent magnets have achieved a complete reversal; cutting-edge fields like perovskites are on par with world-class levels; although high-end material links like solder resist and GaN substrates face short-term supply chain challenges, this also drives domestic enterprises to accelerate the transformation from "laboratory products" to "industrial-level applications."

Looking to the future, from the perspective of the AIC Engineering team, the ultimate winner in industrial competition is not who can block technology more strictly, but who can truly transform technology into its own industrial strength.

Sources

• haiwaiwai.com (2026-08-22)
• Original link: Japan's New Tech Blacklist: 5 Key Technologies Restricted and How China's Industry Can Strengthen Itself