Market Trends of Japan Flash Memory Industry
Automotive to Hold Significant Market Share
- Automotive industry to capture a significant share of Japan's Flash Memory market during the forecast period owing to a rise in sales of EVs and rapid adoption of cutting-edge technologies in automotive. The next-generation self-driving cars or autonomous vehicles utilize various sensors and sensing cameras, which generate a huge amount of data every second and demand high-performance storage such as flash memory is expected to push the market towards a growth trajectory. In line with recent trends, many players are expanding their product portfolio for automotive applications.
- Japan is one of the largest producers of automobiles in the world. It is the major contributor to the country's GDP. Japan-based automotive key manufacturers such as Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota dominate the automotive market worldwide. These automakers continuously focus on research and development and invest in electric vehicle production. For instance, in August 2022, Toyota Motor Corp. announced an investment of USD 5.6 billion toward the supply of battery electric vehicles in Japan and the United States. The investment is driven by the growing demand for EVs worldwide.
- With the advancements in automotive computerization continuing to progress, flash memory is seeing use in a broader range of various automotive applications. The new high-performance automotive applications such as infotainment systems, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), instrument clusters, and drive video/data recorders boost the demand for compute scalability resulting in increasing demand for low latency and high storage bandwidth.
- The Japanese government's ongoing efforts to shift to environment-friendly vehicles will accelerate the sales of electric vehicles. Japan's government has set a target to transition all new cars sold will be eco-friendly by 2035. The government is also supporting the initiative by offering subsidies for part of the cost of purchasing electric vehicles, such as Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs). According to Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA), the sales of new vehicles in April 2023 increased by over 16% compared to April 2022. These factors are expected to boost the segment growth.
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NOR Flash Memory to Grow with Significant Growth Rate
- NOR Flash Memory is projected to grow at a significant growth rate during the forecast period. NOR flash memories provide high reliability with low initial response and boot latency. In addition, NOR Flash process technology advances, such as MirrorBit technology, which stores two bits per memory cell, support greater density scaling than floating-gate technology. The increased density enables monolithic 1-GB and higher density NOR flash products required for 5G wireless infrastructure. Due to such characteristics, NOR flash memories are widely used in wireless-infrastructure applications.
- In April 2022, the Japanese Government announced a plan: by the end of the fiscal year 2030, 99% of the population is predicted to be served by 5G networks. The penetration of 5G connections in Japan is projected to rise from 153% in 2021 to 154% in 2025, according to the GSMA Association. Further, the adoption rate of 5G smartphones is projected to increase to 81% in 2025 from 71% in 2021, while the penetration rate of 5G subscribers is projected to grow from 87% in 2021 to 88% in 2025. Also, Japan's 5G technology mix share is expected to rise to 68% by 2024.
- It is also expected that industrial robots, which are one of the most common use cases of NOR flash memory, and Japan is already one of the largest markets for industrial robots, are projected to create new market opportunities for market players. According to a recent report from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), Japanese manufacturers account for 45% of the global supply of industrial robots, making them the world's top manufacturer of industrial robots.
- Further, the demand for NOR Flash memory is expected to grow with the growing adoption of IoT devices. Due to the increasing availability of high-speed connectivity, rising cloud adoption, and increasing use of data processing and analytics, the adoption of IoT is growing steadily, which is expected to encourage segment growth. Further, the growing demand for wearables, smart devices, and digital acceleration across industries fuel the demand for high storage and small NOR flash memory chip.
