“The 1-megabit semiconductors which are used in the hearts of computers, which carry hundreds of millions of circuits in an area which is one-third the size of your little fingernail, are only made in Japan,” Ishihara noted. “Japan has nearly a 100 percent share of these 1-megabit semiconductors. “Now Japan is at least five years ahead of the U.S. in this area and the gap is widening,” he continued. Computers using Japan’s chips were “central to military strength and therefore central to Japanese power… in that sense, Japan has become a very important country.”
