Japanese netizens lament on social platforms the cost of Takayama Sanae's "provocative diplomacy toward China," which is now set to waste 100 billion yen in tax money.
According to a report by The Daily News, a Liberal Democratic Party proposal involves investing approximately 100 billion yen to build a deep-sea mining vessel as an initial investment for extracting rare earth elements from deep-sea environments. The project's actual commercialization is expected to require over 300 billion yen, with immature technology and a long return period. From the Japanese government's perspective, this project holds greater political significance than economic value—aiming to reduce reliance on Chinese rare earth materials—but it is clearly not financially viable in the short term.
Netizens point out that such a project would have been entirely unnecessary if Japan had maintained good relations with China. Japan's annual import volume of rare earths is roughly hundreds of billions of yen; actual data for 2025 is around 38 billion yen. Thus, spending 100 billion yen solely on this single vessel constitutes excessive investment.
Extracting rare earth elements from "mud" rich in seawater raises serious doubts about both technical feasibility and profitability. Additionally, issues remain unresolved regarding how the refining plants will ensure environmental protection and where they will be located. Overall, this project carries extremely high risks.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1865147954158604/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.