A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan on July 28, forcing an emergency evacuation at TSMC's semiconductor complex before the company confirmed all workers were safe and began bringing production lines back online in a phased restart.
The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a focal depth of approximately 10 kilometers and a peak seismic intensity of 7 in Kumamoto Prefecture — the highest level on Japan's scale — when the quake hit at around 4 p.m. local time, followed by multiple aftershocks. The tremors were strongly felt in Kikuyo, the Kumamoto district where TSMC's Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM) facility is located. The fab complex itself recorded a maximum intensity of 5.
JASM Clears All Personnel, Finds No Structural Damage
Following the initial tremor, JASM activated its internal safety protocols and immediately evacuated all workers. After a full headcount, TSMC confirmed that every person on-site had been accounted for and was uninjured. A subsequent structural inspection of the fab buildings returned a similar result: no damage was found to the complex's architecture.
With the safety and building checks complete, JASM began a phased resumption of its production lines. TSMC emphasized, however, that a gradual restart is not the same as a full recovery. Detailed inspections of precision equipment, manufacturing support systems, machine calibration parameters, and wafers currently in production are still ongoing. Semiconductor fabrication tools are highly sensitive to vibration and power fluctuations — meaning the full scope of any equipment displacement or in-process wafer losses will not be known until those assessments are complete.
Aftershock Risk Halts Fab 2 Construction, 2028 Launch Uncertain
At the adjacent Fab 2 construction site, the earthquake left no visible damage, but TSMC said some ongoing work has been suspended as a precautionary measure in anticipation of further aftershocks. The company was clear that the pause is a safety decision, not a response to any damage at the build site.
The suspension nonetheless raises questions about TSMC's Kumamoto expansion timeline. Fab 1, which entered mass production in late 2024, operates on 12/16-nanometer and 22/28-nanometer processes with a monthly output of roughly 55,000 twelve-inch wafers — primarily serving automotive, industrial, and consumer electronics customers. The under-construction Fab 2 is designed around a more advanced 3-nanometer process, targets mass production in 2028, and is planned to add around 15,000 wafers per month in additional capacity. Because TSMC has not specified exactly which construction activities are on hold, it remains unclear whether the stoppage carries any downstream risk to the Fab 2 schedule.
Advantech and Delta Electronics Report No Disruption in Kumamoto
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said it reached out to Taiwanese companies operating in the Kumamoto area through its Fukuoka economic office. Advantech — a leading Taiwanese industrial computing firm — and Delta Electronics, a major power management and electronics manufacturer, along with Yukken and Tokyo Star, all reported that local employees were safe and that operations had not been affected.
The ministry cautioned that this reflects an early-stage assessment made in the hours immediately after the quake. Continued aftershock activity, along with potential strain on local transportation, power supply, and water infrastructure, could yet affect business conditions in the region. Officials said they would continue to track developments and stay in close contact with Taiwanese businesses on the ground.
The July 28 quake arrives as Kumamoto has emerged as one of the most strategically watched manufacturing corridors in the Indo-Pacific. TSMC's JASM investment — partly underwritten by Japanese government subsidies as part of Tokyo's push to rebuild domestic semiconductor capacity — has come to represent a test case for the durability of cross-border chip supply chains. With the most urgent safety questions now answered, industry attention will shift to how quickly precision equipment can be recertified, whether any wafer losses materialize, and when construction on Fab 2 resumes. （Related： Kumamoto 7.1 Quake Triggers TSMC Evacuation, Tsunami Warnings ｜ Latest ）
