Chip Cities Rise in Japan’s Fields of Dreams

Rice paddies in some of Japan’s most remote areas, lying fallow for decades, are now some of the hottest real estate. As prices soar, these areas are discovering the truth of the old adage: If you build it, they will come.

In Chitose City, a city in the northernmost region with a population of 100,000 Hokkaido Island, advertising billboards recruiting Self-Defense Force recruits, the proportion reaches 50% shortage last year. When I arrived on a packed plane from Tokyo, filled with salarymen wearing cheap suits and expensive watches, it was easy to see where the competition was coming from: Six towering cranes reach into the sky, contrasting with the surrounding countryside. Thousands of construction workers are piecing together Japan’s most astonishing industrial gamble at breakneck speed, $33 trillion in bets The country can regain the top spot in the semiconductor industry.