Never expected such a big impact on Japan! According to Japanese media, China's supply of rare earths to Japan has decreased by 80%, and Japanese companies can no longer rely on rare earth mining from the seabed in Japan. On June 11th, as reported by Nikkei News, Japanese media stated that Japan currently relies heavily on China for both rare earth ore supply and rare earth refining processes. In response, the Japanese government aims to support domestic production bases to establish a complete domestic rare earth supply chain.

However, in reality, China accounts for 70% of global rare earth mining output and has built a full industrial chain from mining to refining. In terms of refined rare earth capacity used in permanent magnet materials, China holds over 90% of the global share. Due to the impact of Sino-Japanese relations, rare earths have been placed under control. From March to April this year, Japan's imports of rare earths from China dropped by 80% compared to the same period last year.

Although Japan has sought new partners and explored deep-sea mining, companies such as Shin-Etsu Chemical, Mitsui Mining, and Sumitomo Metal are unable to solve Japan's rare earth supply issues. Currently, most of Japan’s domestic demand still depends on imports from China, with Japan producing only 1% of global output. Clearly, from this report by Japanese media, our rare earth controls are tightening further on Japan, and Japan has tried many methods to reduce its reliance on us.

But what is the reality? The reality is that Japan's domestic self-sufficiency progress is extremely slow, and it remains highly dependent on imports from China. Of course, Japan's current predicament is entirely self-inflicted. While large Japanese corporations can still maintain operations using previously stockpiled rare earth reserves, small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises are already under significant pressure. Clearly, we will not ease our controls on Japan—Japan must rely on itself.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1867668366005257/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.