Recently, Reuters reported that when the Biden government announced the latest export controls aimed at preventing China from becoming a leader in the advanced semiconductor industry in October 2022, it lacked a key factor: the United States allies agreed to implement their own matching restrictions.

The article believes that persuading Japan to join the ranks of the United States will limit China's access to U.S. chip manufacturing technology, and cut off the connection between China and some semiconductor chips manufactured in other parts of the world. This will also be the first task of the meeting between U.S. President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Mansuo Shoda on Friday.

With the intensification of competition between China and the United States in Japan, American officials tout the closer and closer strategic alliance with Japan. However, although Japan is generally in line with the Biden government's goal of expanding U.S. export control, the Shoda government has been vague about the extent of accession.

Japan's Minister of Economy and Industry, Nimitsu Nishimura, made a speech in Washington last week, promising to cooperate more closely with the United States in export control, but he did not say whether Japan would be fully consistent with the United States' comprehensive restrictive measures.

This hesitation is understandable - according to the data of the Semiconductor Industry Association, Japan is the largest producer of special tools and equipment needed to manufacture advanced chips. Tokyo Electronics, a leading manufacturer of chip manufacturing equipment in Japan, accounts for 27% of the global market share, but about one quarter of its revenue depends on China.

Recently, however, American officials have played down the differences between the United States, Japan and other allies.

"I think the views on the challenges are very similar," a senior U.S. government official told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that Japan's export restrictions may not be completely the same as those of the United States.

"But I don't think Japan will question the basic premise that we need to cooperate closely in this regard." An official of the US Department of Commerce said in October that he expected to reach an agreement with his allies in the near future.

The White House said on Thursday that the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Lute would go to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Biden to discuss "key technical cooperation and the common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region".

Nevertheless, Daniel Russell, a former senior American diplomat in Asia, said that there was still a gap between the positions of the United States and Japan.

"Shoda hopes that the United States will take a counter-productive approach, both tough enough to prevent China's confidence and cautious enough to allow Japan's commercial interests to flourish," he said.

The deal between the United States and the Netherlands may also take place soon. An executive in the tool manufacturing industry familiar with the country's industry said that if the Dutch government implemented similar export controls on its industry, ASML might not be seriously affected because it has a wide customer network outside China.

Chris Miller, author of the book "Chip War" and associate professor of Tufts University, believes that if American diplomacy succeeds, its policy may have the expected impact.

Miller said that with Japan's accession, especially in terms of chip manufacturing tools, the United States may "set a lot of obstacles to China's ability to promote its domestic chip manufacturing".

This will have a ripple effect on China's other technological ambitions, including artificial intelligence.

A chip industry source familiar with the discussion of internal export restrictions said that Japanese companies could make up for lost Chinese business by expanding in Southeast Asia and other places. "For better or worse, Japan's semiconductor strategy is acting according to the wishes of the United States."