On August 2, 2026, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo reported that 'in Kyushu's 'Silicon Island,' centered around Kumamoto, the impact on production due to the Reiwa 8 Kumamoto Earthquake is being resolved faster than expected.' Kyushu, backed by abundant groundwater, has production bases for companies like Sony, TSMC, Renesas Electronics, and Mitsubishi Electric, and is called 'Silicon Island.'

The article, quoting reports from Japanese media, stated that a maximum seismic intensity of 7 earthquake occurred on the 28th of last month, and although there were concerns about a long-term stagnation of the supply chain, major factories have successively announced their plans to resume operations.

Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing's factory (Kikuyo-machi, Kumamoto Prefecture), which had temporarily suspended production, has indicated a policy to resume operations from the 4th of this month, seven days after the earthquake. During the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, it took 25 days from the first earthquake for some operations to resume. This time, it is expected that pre-earthquake production levels can be restored by mid-month.

Mitsubishi Electric, Renesas Electronics, and Tokyo Electron Kyushu have also successively announced their production resumption plans. It is said that they were able to proceed with early recovery because there was no serious damage to their main production facilities.

The article also analyzes that measures taken since the earthquake 10 years ago have been successful. Sony Group has revealed that 'over the past 10 years, we have promoted seismic strengthening of buildings and production facilities.' The scale of losses is also expected to be significantly smaller than 10 years ago.

In response to this article, Korean net users posted comments such as: 'Japan is not a country where you can feel safe just because it has overcome one earthquake,' 'The earthquake isn't over yet. A big one might come again within a few days...', 'If they rush the restart too much, defective products will emerge, and production will stop again,' 'Having semiconductor factories in an earthquake-prone region is too risky,' and 'Who was it that suggested building a factory in this location?'