Mostly True
A report circulating in Korean media claims that Japan has entered discussions to build a semiconductor foundry in the United States as the third project under its investment program aimed at the US, with the scale of the potential construction put at a maximum of 26 trillion won. This newspaper's fact-check desk examined the claim against 12 primary sources to determine how much of the report holds up.
The headline presents two elements as established: that the foundry is the No. 3 item in Japan's ledger of investments bound for the US, and that the construction carries a figure of "up to 26 trillion won." Both qualifiers matter. The "up to" framing marks 26 trillion won as a ceiling rather than a committed sum, and the phrase "๊ฑด์ค๋ ผ์" โ construction under discussion โ places the project at the negotiation stage, not the signing stage.
The desk's review of 12 primary sources supports the core of the report: a semiconductor foundry is indeed the project under discussion as Japan's third flagship investment in the US, and the figures cited in Korean-language coverage reach as high as 26 trillion won. What the record does not yet show is a finalized deal. The reporting describes active talks and a maximum potential scale, not a signed contract or a locked-in budget, which is the gap between the headline's sweeping framing and the state of play on the ground.
After weighing the coverage against the primary record, our ruling on the claim is: Mostly True.