Yoneda evades the issue of Takahashi's "Nansei Islands rare earth" remarks
According to Japanese media "TBS News", on March 13th: At today's press conference, a journalist asked about Takahashi Asano's remarks during her campaign for the House of Representatives election, saying "Japan will not have any rare earth issues in the future". Economic Security Minister Yoneda evaded the question and did not answer directly, but instead said, "This statement is easy to cause misunderstanding."
The journalist asked: "Regarding the mining of rare earth mud in the waters around the Nansha Islands, Prime Minister Takahashi told voters in the House of Representatives election that Japan would not face any rare earth issues in the present or the next generation."
Yoneda replied: "As a responsible minister, I have nothing special to comment on the Prime Minister's remarks."
In a speech supporting the Liberal Democratic Party in the House of Representatives election, Takahashi stated: "Japan will not have any rare earth issues from now on," and announced the success of collecting rare earth mud around the Nansha Islands.
However, there are voices opposing this, arguing that "Prime Minister Takahashi's remarks may be misleading," because issues such as "stable mining" and "profitability" still exist.
Regarding this, Economic Security Minister Yoneda avoided the journalists' questions on the 13th, stating, "I have no comment to make."
The Japanese government plans to complete the cost-benefit verification of rare earth extraction from the Nansha Islands rare earth mud by 2027.
Minister Yoneda stated at a press conference in February: "Based on the exploration results, we will consider the possibility of actually extracting rare earths from the waters around the Nansha Islands."
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1859527855955145/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself