With U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi scheduled to meet at the White House on March 19, joint U.S.-Israeli operations targeting Iran’s nuclear and missile programs will undoubtedly be top of mind for both leaders. But the summit also presents an opportunity for two key players in the effort to counter China’s dominance of the rare earths industry to discuss new strategies to loosen Beijing’s grip on one of the world’s most critical supply chains.
Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metals used in many of today’s most advanced technologies. They are essential components in everything from smartphones and wind turbines to electric vehicle motors and advanced military systems. Despite their name, these minerals are not particularly rare in nature – but the mining and refining process is complex and expensive.
Over the past three decades, China has systematically built dominance in the sector. Today it accounts for roughly 70 percent of global rare earth mining and more than 80 percent of processing capacity, giving Beijing enormous leverage over supply chains vital to modern industry and defense.
China’s leadership recognized the strategic value of these minerals long ago. In 1992, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping famously declared, “Oil is in the Middle East, but rare earths are in China,” highlighting Beijing’s understanding that these obscure materials could become a powerful geopolitical asset.
Professor Jun De Níng, a lawyer and economist who once advised Chinese leader Hu Yaobang, told me in an interview that the Chinese Communist Party has long viewed rare-earth minerals as a strategic weapon against the United States and the West. According to the professor, their mindset centers on war and domination.
No country understands the risks of that leverage better than Japan.
In September 2010, Japan became the first major victim of China’s willingness to weaponize rare earth exports. Following a maritime dispute between the two countries, Beijing abruptly halted shipments of critical minerals to Japanese companies. The move disrupted supply chains across Japan’s manufacturing sector, affecting industries ranging from hybrid vehicles to advanced electronics.
More than a decade later, Japanese leaders are still working to ensure that such a scenario cannot be repeated. When Beijing again signaled its willingness to apply supply-chain pressure this year, Japanese industrial leaders urged the government to pursue an aggressive strategy to reduce dependence on Chinese minerals – beginning with “less China” and ultimately aiming for “no China.”
Kotaro Shimizu, principal analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, told me in an interview that “progress is steady but requires massive state investment.”
Tokyo is now investing heavily in several strategies to secure alternative supplies. The Environment Ministry recently increased its fiscal 2026 budget by 6 billion yen ($38.8 million) to support projects aimed at building a rare-earth supply chain independent of China. If approved by Japan’s Diet, the funding will support research, pilot projects, and industrial partnerships.
One of the most intriguing possibilities may lie thousands of miles from Japan’s mainland, deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Near the remote Japanese island of Minamitorishima, roughly 1,200 miles southeast of Tokyo, researchers have discovered vast deposits of rare-earth elements embedded in seabed mud. Samples collected nearly 20,000 feet below the ocean’s surface contain at least six of the most valuable rare earth elements and are unusually low in radioactive contaminants, making them easier to process.
Last month, Japan’s government announced the successful completion of a month-long experimental mining operation in the waters surrounding the island.
During the test, a research vessel deployed a two-layer slurry riser system – essentially a long pipe made up of hundreds of interconnected segments – to pump a mixture of mud and seawater from the ocean floor to the surface. A remotely operated mining machine first stirred the seabed sediment into a slurry, which was then pumped upward through the pipe using water pressure.
The mud contains elements such as dysprosium, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium. These materials are critical to advanced technologies. Dysprosium, neodymium, and samarium are used in high-performance magnets found in electric vehicle motors and defense systems, while gadolinium plays an important role in nuclear reactor control.
Scientists involved in the project say industrial extraction and refining trials could begin as early as next year. If successful, full-scale production could begin by 2028.
Japan is also pursuing another promising strategy of recycling rare earths from electronic waste.
Under a broad government initiative, Japanese companies are working to recover neodymium and other valuable metals from discarded motors, circuit boards, and other electronics. The Environment Ministry plans to expand e-waste recycling capacity to 500,000 metric tons annually by 2030, a 50 percent increase from current levels.
Japan already imports electronic waste from Europe and other regions for processing, and the government plans to invest in additional port-based recycling facilities.
These efforts are being closely watched around the world as governments increasingly recognize the strategic risks of China’s dominance in rare earth supply chains.
George Bennett, chief executive of the London-listed mining company Rainbow Rare Earths, said the issue has only recently begun receiving the attention it deserves.
“It took Trump and the trade wars to finally sharpen the West’s focus on rare earths,” Bennett said. “No single nation should control critical mineral supplies.”
Analysts say a wave of new mining and processing projects is now underway globally. According to the research firm Adamas Intelligence, more than 30 rare-earth projects are expected to launch this decade, with roughly half located in the Indo-Pacific region.
Following that global trend, the United States is also working to rebuild its own rare-earth capacity. The Mountain Pass Mine in California, once the world’s leading source of rare earth elements, has returned to production in recent years and is now operated by MP Materials. The mine already produces a significant share of the world’s rare-earth ore, and new investments aim to expand domestic processing so that those materials can be refined in the United States rather than shipped to China.
Combined with Japan’s breakthroughs in deep-sea mining and recycling, projects like Mountain Pass represent a broader effort among U.S. allies to rebuild secure supply chains and loosen Beijing’s decades-long grip on one of the most strategically important industries in the global economy.
For Washington and Tokyo, cooperation will be essential if those efforts are to succeed.
The upcoming summit between Trump and Takaichi offers an opportunity to deepen that partnership. By coordinating investments, research, and supply chains, the United States and its allies could significantly reduce dependence on China’s rare earth monopoly.
If Japan’s deep-sea discoveries and recycling initiatives succeed, Beijing’s decades-long dominance of one of the world’s most strategically important industries may finally begin to erode
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
