Japanese Offer to Share HDTV Data With U.S. : Electronics: Deal would allow American chip makers to produce components for television systems designed in Japan.

A Japanese electronics industry group has offered to share information about advanced high-definition television with U.S. semiconductor makers to allow them to produce components for Japanese-developed HDTV systems, U.S. industry officials said Wednesday.

The Electronic Industry Assn. of Japan said it “would welcome the active participation of foreign-based semiconductor manufacturers” in HDTV, the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Assn. said in a statement.

HDTV, which uses large numbers of semiconductor chips to produce images as clear as in movie theaters, is seen by some analysts as a key element of the consumer electronics industry’s future.

E. David Metz, executive director of the Semiconductor Industry Assn.’s Japan office, said the two industry groups agreed in talks Tuesday night to establish committees on HDTV cooperation and technical exchange.

He said the committees would “provide U.S. semiconductor makers with an opportunity” to supply chips for Japanese HDTV manufacturers.

“We don’t see that there are formal barriers to participation,” Metz said Wednesday. “We sense a cooperative attitude.”

He said the talks were not likely to have an immediate effect on sales of U.S.-made semiconductors in Japan because HDTV equipment is still at the prototype stage.

“But we hope it will encourage more design activity in Japan” by U.S. semiconductor makers, he said. More U.S. designs of HDTV chips for Japanese manufacturers “should show up in volume business later,” he said.

Wilfred Corrigan, chairman of the semiconductor group, said Tuesday that Japanese companies and government agencies have stepped up their efforts in recent months to increase purchases of foreign semiconductors, but that foreign chips still have only a 11.2% share of the Japanese market.

“I’m optimistic these new efforts and this new openness is going to result in a very real increase in market share for American companies,” he said.

The Semiconductor Industry Assn. says Japan pledged in semiconductor negotiations in 1986 to boost the share of foreign chips in the Japanese market to more than 20% within five years, but Japanese officials say the figure was a goal, not a commitment.