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政府は、世界と競争をするためには、日本で安定して半導体を作る工場ができることは大事だと言って...
The government say it is important to build a factory which makes semiconductors ??? in Japan in order to compete with the (rest of) the world.

I'm struggling to fit the 安定して part into this sentence. What is stable? I'm assuming this is an adverbial phrase, but is it modifying 作る or できる, or is something else going on? In any case, I can't form a sentence that sounds reasonable and fits my understanding of the grammar.

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I think here 安定する means something like "to be established", "to operate normally and stably".

A similar example from a random Google search:

これからの日本で安定した基盤を持って、かつ成長していくことができる企業には、3つの要素があると私たちは考えています。
We believe there are three elements to companies that have a stable foundation and can grow in Japan in the future.

Let me take a stab at it:

政府は、世界と競争をするためには、日本で安定して半導体を作る工場ができることは大事だと言って
The government says that in order to compete with other countries building stably functional semiconductor fabrication plants in Japan is important.

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  • Ah, I think I understand my problem now. 工場 is the head noun for two separate relative clauses: 半導体を作る工場 and 安定した工場. The two relative clauses have been joined into one clause with the て. So it is a factory which is stable and which makes semiconductors. Does that sound right to you?
    – user3856370
    Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 15:57
  • @user3856370 Spot on!
    – Eddie Kal
    Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 17:43
  • @user3856370 - No, 安定して modifies 作る.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented Oct 19, 2021 at 9:30
  • @aguijonazo Then I'm afraid I'm back to my original confusion. What does it mean to "make a semiconductor stably"? That would suggest there are also factories that manufacture semiconductors which fall apart after 5 days. I'm very confused. Also, are you saying that my explanation of the grammar in the comment is impossible or just that you don't think it is correct in this particular example?
    – user3856370
    Commented Oct 19, 2021 at 15:40
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    @user3856370 - It’s not impossible but very unlikely. The 安定した in 安定した工場 refers to a state, not a past action. If it were used as a predicate, it would be 安定している. When it is changed to the て-form to be connected with another verb phrase such as 半導体を作る, it tends to retain the ている part, resulting in 安定していて. It’s much more natural to understand the 安定して in the original sentence as modifying 作る. I am not sure why you have difficulty understanding 安定して半導体を作る. Doesn’t the adverb “stably” go with the verb “produce” in English? I have seen at least the noun phrase “stable production.”
    – aguijonazo
    Commented Oct 19, 2021 at 16:33

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