Now that the Americans are catching their breath somewhat in 64K DRAM chips. The Japanese regard semiconductors as the key to future industrial economies and are going out of their way to secure their primacy in the field. Thus the Japanese find themselves in an industry that is growing incredibly expensive, incredibly capital intensive, but producing products that are plummeting in prices. This is at the same time they are increasingly writing off their production facilities in 3-4 years. Three years ago it took 3-4 billion yen.
Profits are surely less than sales.
But again this is an important industry.