Oriental Living

Tag: japan

  • Samsung’s Lee Visits Japan Lab to Boost AI Chip Packaging

    Samsung’s Lee Visits Japan Lab to Boost AI Chip Packaging

    Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the company’s advanced chip-packaging research lab in Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday, reviewing technology progress and discussing closer cooperation with local suppliers, according to Samsung Electronics as reported by Hankyoreh and The Korea Times.

    a close up of a pattern of small squares
    Photo by Maxence Pira on Unsplash
    Key facts

    • Samsung Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the Advanced Package Lab (APL) in Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday, according to Hankyoreh and The Korea Times.
    • APL began operating in 2023 and held its official opening ceremony on September 8 this year, per Hankyoreh and Korea Times.
    • Samsung Electronics has been investing 40 billion yen (about $254 million) over five years starting in 2024 to build the lab's research infrastructure, according to Korea Times.
    • Lee was accompanied by Kawahira Hiroichi, vice president and head of DS Research Japan, and Kariya Takashi, the executive director leading APL, per Hankyoreh.
    • Last month, Lee reportedly called Samsung's chip division head Jeon Young-hyun and devices division head Roh Tae-moon to Japan for a related meeting, according to Hankyoreh.

    What happened

    Lee toured the Advanced Package Lab (APL), accompanied by Kawahira Hiroichi, vice president and head of DS Research Japan, and Kariya Takashi, the executive director who leads APL, Hankyoreh reported. During the visit, Lee checked on the development of materials and process technologies used in advanced semiconductor packaging and spoke with researchers about expanding ties with Japan’s materials, parts and equipment companies, according to the outlet. The Korea Times added that Lee pledged to keep growing APL’s research staff and to turn it into a global hub for next-generation packaging work.

    The trip followed an earlier gathering last month, when Lee reportedly summoned Samsung’s semiconductor division head Jeon Young-hyun and its devices division head Roh Tae-moon to Japan for discussions, Hankyoreh noted.

    Why it matters

    Advanced packaging involves combining different chip components — such as GPUs, high-bandwidth memory, and accelerator chips — into a single package. This step directly affects how an AI system performs in terms of data bandwidth, power efficiency, and heat management, according to Hankyoreh. As global demand for AI processors rises, packaging technology is increasingly seen as being just as important as chip fabrication itself.

    Lee reportedly stressed that securing strong packaging capabilities is critical, since these techniques are becoming central to competitiveness in AI processor chips, according to Korea Times.

    a large body of water with a city in the background
    Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash

    Background

    APL began operating in 2023 and held its formal opening ceremony on September 8 this year, according to both Hankyoreh and Korea Times. Samsung Electronics said it has been investing 40 billion yen, roughly $254 million, over five years starting in 2024 to build research infrastructure in Japan and strengthen its packaging technology, Korea Times reported.

    The lab is meant to connect Samsung’s chip design and manufacturing operations with Japan’s network of materials, parts, and equipment suppliers, including firms like Tokyo Electron and Ibiden, according to Hankyoreh. APL’s research focus differs from that of the packaging unit at Samsung’s Semiconductor R&D Center in Korea, and the two teams plan to coordinate closely for added synergy, Korea Times reported.

    Samsung also pointed to Japan’s government support for the semiconductor and AI sectors as a reason the country remains an attractive base for packaging research and local partnerships, according to a company statement cited by Hankyoreh. More broadly, Japan has long been home to a dense network of specialized chip equipment and materials makers, giving global chipmakers access to an established supply chain even as the country builds fewer leading-edge chip factories than some competitors.

    What to watch

    Future signals to track include whether APL expands its headcount and research scope as Samsung has indicated, and whether the company deepens its sourcing relationships with Japanese materials and equipment firms. Our read: the visit suggests Samsung sees packaging technology, not just transistor miniaturization, as a key front in the broader AI chip race, with Japan’s supplier base playing a growing part in that strategy. Additional announcements on investment levels, staffing, or specific technology milestones at APL would offer clearer evidence of how quickly this approach is advancing.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is Advanced Package Lab (APL)?

    APL is Samsung Electronics' semiconductor packaging research site in Yokohama, Japan, that develops and tests materials and process technologies for advanced chip packaging, according to Hankyoreh and Korea Times.

    How much has Samsung invested in the Japan lab?

    Samsung Electronics has been investing 40 billion yen, about $254 million, over five years starting in 2024 to build research infrastructure there, per Korea Times.

    Why does packaging matter for AI chips?

    Advanced packaging combines components like GPUs, high-bandwidth memory, and accelerator chips into a single unit, directly shaping an AI system's bandwidth, power efficiency, and heat performance, according to Hankyoreh.

    Sources

    This article was prepared with AI assistance from the reports listed above and automatically checked against them. See About for how we work.

  • The Silent Immersion of Japanese Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing as a Path to Presence

    Photo by Weichao Deng on Unsplash

    In the cedar groves above Nagano, there’s a wooden sign nailed to a tree that simply reads: “No goal. No pace. No phone.” No map markers, no distance counters—just an invitation to stop walking anywhere in particular.

    That sign captures something most Western wellness trends miss entirely. Shinrin-yoku isn’t a hike, a workout, or a mindfulness app with trees in the background. It’s a specific, culturally rooted practice of sensory immersion that Japan has spent decades refining, studying, and quietly exporting to the rest of the world.

    Origin: Japan, coined as a term in the early 1980s

    Region: Nationwide, especially certified forest therapy trails in Nagano, Akita, and Kyoto prefectures

    Era: Modern practice, rooted in older Shinto reverence for forests as sacred space

    Best known for: Slow, sensory-based forest walking without exercise goals

    Core value: Presence through the five senses, not distance or destination

    Why did Japan turn silence into a national health practice?

    The term shinrin-yoku—literally “forest bathing”—was first introduced in the early 1980s, traditionally credited to Japan’s Forestry Agency during a campaign to reconnect an increasingly urbanized population with the country’s mountains, which cover roughly two-thirds of the nation’s land.

    Photo by Nichika Sakurai on Unsplash

    Office workers in Tokyo and Osaka were spending longer hours indoors than any generation before them. The agency’s idea was pragmatic: if people wouldn’t visit forests for recreation, perhaps they would for their health.

    What started as a public health slogan tapped into something older. Shinto tradition had long treated certain forests as dwelling places for kami, spirits bound to specific trees, rocks, and groves. Entering those spaces quietly, without disturbance, was never just etiquette—it was closer to a form of respect.

    So when the modern practice asked people to slow down and listen, it wasn’t inventing a new relationship with the forest. It was reviving one.

    How does shinrin-yoku actually work, physically and mentally?

    Unlike hiking, there’s no summit, no mileage, no pace to maintain. A session might cover only a few hundred meters in two hours.

    Practitioners are guided to engage each sense deliberately: the resin smell of hinoki cypress, the temperature shift under a canopy, the particular pitch of wind moving through bamboo versus cedar. Japanese researchers at several universities have studied measurable effects—lowered cortisol, reduced heart rate, shifts in autonomic nervous system balance—after short periods of this kind of unhurried forest exposure.

    But the mechanism isn’t mysterious. Removing goal-oriented movement removes a layer of mental noise most people carry without noticing. The forest doesn’t need to be beautiful. It needs to be unmanaged enough that attention has nowhere urgent to go.

    What makes a forest walk different from a forest bath?

    A walk has a destination. A bath has none.

    Photo by Tianshu Liu on Unsplash

    In shinrin-yoku, speed itself is the obstacle. Guides at certified therapy trails often instruct participants to walk slower than feels natural, sometimes stopping entirely for ten or fifteen minutes at a single spot.

    The difference shows up in what people notice. Someone power-walking through a forest sees trees as backdrop. Someone bathing in it sees texture in bark, hears insects shift pitch as clouds pass overhead, notices the specific cold of shade versus the warmth two steps away in a sunlit patch.

    How do practitioners prepare for true immersion?

    Preparation here means subtraction, not addition. Phones go into bags, not pockets. Conversation, if any, stays minimal and quiet.

    Many certified trails recommend arriving without a fixed time limit, since checking a watch undoes much of the state the practice is meant to build. Some sessions begin with a guide asking participants simply to stand still and name five things they can hear—an exercise that sounds almost too simple until it’s attempted.

    Clothing matters less than most assume; comfort and weather-appropriateness are enough. What matters more is arriving without an agenda for what the forest should provide.

    What can city dwellers borrow from this practice?

    You don’t need a certified cypress forest in Nagano to borrow the logic of shinrin-yoku. You need unmanaged green space and permission to move through it without purpose.

    A neighborhood park, a riverside path, even a cluster of trees behind an office building can work if the intention shifts. The practice isn’t about where you are—it’s about removing the pressure to get somewhere.

    Try this today: find ten minutes near any trees, leave your phone in a bag, and simply stand still long enough to notice four distinct sounds before you move again.

    The forest asks nothing of you except the willingness to stop asking anything of it.