Ticker: Japanese leader stresses ties with Taiwan and support for key technology

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Saturday visited a new semiconductor plant for which his government has pledged more than $7 billion of support to secure a steady supply of chips. The new plant on the southwestern island of Kyushu, majority owned by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is the Taiwanese semiconductor giant’s first in Japan.

“I believe this project will have positive ripple effects throughout Japan,” he said, adding that it’s “key for not only the semiconductor industry but also a wide range of businesses such as electric vehicles and electronics.””

Kishida expressed his sympathies over the earthquake that recently hit Taiwan. Japan has recently earmarked about $33 billion to revive its chips industry, seeking to become less dependent on imports in the wake of pandemic-era shortages that affected auto production and other industries for months.

Amid legal challenges, SEC pauses its climate rule

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it would pause the implementation of its new climate disclosure rule while it defended the regulation in court.

Wall Street’s top regulator voted in March on the final rule, which requires some public companies in the U.S. to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. The measure faced legal challenges almost immediately.

The SEC said it had stayed the rule to avoid regulatory uncertainty for companies that might have been subject to the rules while litigation against it proceeds.

The SEC said it would continue “vigorously defending” the validity of its climate rule and believes that it had acted within its authority to require disclosures important to investors. The rule is pending review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.