After all that, rare earths imported from Malaysia to Japan between 2020 and 2024 still cost 50% more on average than Chinese analogues, according to Mizuho, a Japanese bank.

Not only are rare earths hard to mine, but refining them is also an expensive, lengthy and environmentally harmful process that few countries want to host.

mmediately after its stand-off with China, Japan’s government passed a ¥100bn ($1.2bn) supplemental budget for rare-earth supply chains. It also developed a national strategy for breaking China’s chokehold on the materials. This involved finding alternative sources of rare earths, reducing their overall use, and stockpiling them for the next... See more