South Korean retail investors focused their Japanese equity buying on semiconductor-related stocks in early August 2026, reversing last month's tilt toward financials and spreading funds across chip equipment, materials and electronic components. Korea Securities Depository data released on the 16th showed Murata Manufacturing was the top net-bought Japanese stock from Aug. 3 to Aug. 14 at $5,319,242, followed by Tokyo Electron at $2,262,045, Arisawa Manufacturing at $2,132,434 and Micronics Japan at $2,095,373. RS Technologies ranked sixth with $1,390,412 and the Global X Japan Semiconductor ETF was tenth with $1,167,523, meaning six of the top 10 net-bought names were tied to semiconductors or electronic components. Their combined net purchases reached $14,367,029, or 73% of total net buying across the top 10 Japanese stocks during the period, while semiconductor supply chain names including Fujikura and Renesas Electronics were also prominent in the top 20. The shift marks a clear change from July, when Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group led net purchases as buying expanded into financials and Kioxia fell out of the top 50. This month, investors selectively took profits in Kioxia after a sharp rebound: the stock climbed from ¥46,500 at the end of last month to ¥53,740 by Aug. 14, but cumulative trading for Aug. 3-14 turned to net selling of $3,744,970 after heavy profit-taking on Aug. 14, making it the second-most sold name. Demand for Japanese chip stocks has been supported by expectations that rising artificial intelligence infrastructure investment will lift demand not only for high-bandwidth memory but also for NAND flash and solid-state drives used in large-capacity storage. Kioxia and SanDisk on Aug. 12 unveiled 9th-generation 2Tb QLC 3D flash memory aimed at AI and data-intensive applications, and SanDisk on Aug. 13 set a mid-to-high-teens compound annual revenue growth target for fiscal 2028 to 2030 while naming high-bandwidth flash for AI inference as a growth driver. SanDisk shares rose more than 13% that day and Micron gained more than 4%, with the momentum carrying into Asia on Aug. 14 as Kioxia rose 3.75% and SK Hynix closed up 3.26% at ₩1.65 million.