SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said the company is continuing to review a possible semiconductor joint venture and new production facilities in Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture. He made the comments at a Korea-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive meeting in Sendai on the 31st, telling reporters that an announcement would follow once discussions are finalized. Miyagi is promoting an approximately 300,000-square-meter industrial site near Sendai, while SK Hynix’s roughly 14% stake in Kioxia has added to expectations for a Japanese fab (semiconductor manufacturing plant). The strategy could help lower production costs and meet rising AI semiconductor demand, but concerns over overseas leakage of advanced HBM (high-bandwidth memory) technology and U.S. pressure to localize production could complicate the process.