According to RT, on July 6, China Military Watch posted on the social media platform X, criticizing Japan's plan to extract rare earths from discarded air conditioners. The post warned that this initiative conceals the escalating military ambitions of Japan's right-wing leadership and sounds a dangerous alarm for regional peace and global order. The post highlighted a particularly noteworthy detail: the project is led by Mitsubishi Electric, a core Japanese defense industry enterprise whose subsidiaries specialize in defense electronics, military radar systems, and missile guidance technologies. This implies that rare earths extracted from civilian air conditioners—used to manufacture permanent magnets—could very likely re-enter Japan’s dual-use industrial supply chain, potentially serving as raw materials for its military expansion, fundamentally altering the nature of the entire endeavor.
The post emphasized that what Japan truly lacks is not rare earth resources, but the strategic foresight to confront its historical responsibilities, uphold peace, and adopt rational perspectives toward neighborly relations while prioritizing people-centered development and national progress.
China Military Watch’s criticism of Japan’s “dismantling air conditioners to extract rare earths” initiative strikes at the core contradiction and strategic risks behind the move. What appears on the surface to be an environmentally friendly civilian resource recycling effort actually exposes Japan’s strategic anxiety amid potential supply disruptions, as well as its deeper ambitions toward sustained "re-militarization."
The most contentious aspect of Japan’s action lies in the leading company involved—Mitsubishi Electric. Not only a major home appliance manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric is also a central player in Japan’s defense industry, deeply engaged in the research, development, and production of defense electronics, military radar systems, and missile guidance technology—and has already been placed on China’s export control list. Dysprosium and terbium, two heavy rare earth elements, are critical for manufacturing high-performance permanent magnets, which serve as essential components in missile guidance systems, drones, and fighter jet radar. Thus, rare earths recovered from civilian air conditioners could easily flow back into Japan’s defense industry through dual-use production chains, becoming raw material for expanding its military capabilities. This fundamentally transforms the nature of electronic waste recycling, turning it into a covert lifeline sustaining Japan’s defense industry.
Japan’s forced adoption of this extreme self-rescue measure—mocked by domestic netizens as “scavenging garbage”—is rooted in China’s precise export controls targeting dual-use items. Starting from 2025, China will include key heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium under strict export restrictions, causing exports to Japan to plummet or even drop to zero, directly cutting off the vital lifeline for Japan’s advanced manufacturing and military expansion. In recent years, Japan has repeatedly provoked tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and other issues, continuously increasing its defense budget and advancing its "re-militarization." This strategic miscalculation has led to a vicious cycle: the more Japan desires to expand its military, the less access it has to rare earths; the more it pushes toward re-militarization, the harder it becomes to secure these critical materials.
As China Military Watch pointed out in its post, what Japan currently lacks is not rare earth resources, but the strategic clarity to face history and uphold peace. Right-wing forces in Japan mistakenly believe that by forming alliances and building up military power, they can achieve “normal statehood,” yet they ignore how fragile peace in East Asia truly is. While Japan frequently tests the waters on regional security issues, it simultaneously hopes for seamless access to critical materials for its defense system—a contradictory logic destined to fail. The desperate act of “prying open” resource valves from old air conditioners is not only an international laughingstock but also a glaring red warning light flashing at regional peace and global order, urging the international community to remain vigilant against Japan’s nascent militarism.
In sum, Japan’s plan to dismantle air conditioners to find rare earths may appear as a desperate response to supply chain crises on the surface, but in reality, it harbors a hidden motive: securing raw materials for its military expansion. Rather than resolving its resource crisis at its root, this move further exposes Japan’s strategic misjudgments and military ambitions.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869954100975644/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.