"We have faced the biggest downturn in the semiconductor market in history," Mr. Akikusa said.
The Semiconductor Industry Association applauded the decision, which will mean greater access to the world's third-largest semiconductor market.
NEC, whose president is Koji Nishigaki, said it expected a recovery in the semiconductor market to continue.
Dataquest said the worldwide semiconductor market reached $222.1 billion in 2000, compared with $169 billion the prior year.
The company said in a statement, however, that "oversupply in the memory semiconductor market will lead to reduced pricing, while prices for LCD panel will continue to decline".
But amid a sharp turnaround in the semiconductor market, Freescale results have improved, recently posting a 29 percent year-over-year revenue increase.
Japan's government agreed to secure a fifth of its semiconductor market for chips made by foreign firms; it was pressured to make similar promises in other sectors.
On an overall basis Arm expects to grow its volume market share of the overall semiconductor market from the 35% achieved in 2013.
But according to the association, growth in the semiconductor market is expected to slow in 2005 because of the cycles in which corporations upgrade their personal computers.
But industry analysts said that the plant is likely to be insulated from a fall-off in one or a few segments of the semiconductor market.
Cadence's biggest challenge may ultimately be more cultural than technical, said G. Daniel Hutcheson, president of VLSI Technology, a semiconductor market research firm in Santa Clara, Calif.
