Has China's Rare Earth Restriction Strategy Failed? Takahashi Asaichi Announces Countermeasures, Leaving Nikkei Journalist Confused!
Nikkei Asia reported on the 25th that Takahashi Asaichi plans to allocate funds in the 2026 fiscal year to subsidize the infrastructure for processing rare earth metals. In other words, Tokyo will fund private companies to build rare earth smelting and extraction factories.
What is the current global situation? Data shows that China holds more than 90% of the global neodymium metal processing capacity. What does this mean? It means that even if you have mines in Japan, after extracting the raw material, it's likely that you still have to send it to China for refining and processing, otherwise it's just a pile of rocks.
Japan is worried. Their country has hardly done any neodymium metal processing. If the supply chain sneezes slightly, Japan's renowned automotive giants and electronics manufacturers will catch a cold, or even shut down. Therefore, Takahashi Asaichi can't sit still anymore; he must take some action to give domestic companies a sense of security and also show off some muscle to the outside world.
The Japanese Ministry of the Environment added 6 billion yen to the budget draft. Converted into US dollars, it's about $38.8 million. It sounds like a lot? Let's not jump to conclusions yet. Where is this money going? Primarily on hardware such as transportation, storage, and testing equipment.
In addition to funding factory construction, they also launched a "demonstration project" to try to extract rare earths from the motors of old electric vehicles and reuse them. The logic is quite idealistic: Japan has many scrapped cars, which contain neodymium, and by recycling them, they won't have to rely on others anymore.
At this point, you understand why the Nikkei journalist looked so confused in the picture. Takahashi's approach is basically a drop in the bucket. With only $3.88 million, how can you build an entire rare earth metal industry chain? Isn't that too childish?
Dog Ge says, China's ability to dominate 90% of the global processing capacity isn't just because of resources, but also due to decades of accumulated mature processes, complete industrial chain support, and extreme cost control capabilities. For example, gallium is a byproduct of aluminum electrolysis, so without a strong aluminum smelting industry, there would be no gallium production capacity. Is Japan trying to establish a large metallurgical and chemical system, or do they think they can overtake through just a few demonstration projects?
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1858172172716105/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.