According to China’s General Administration of Customs, rare-earth magnet exports to Japan in July totaled 111 tons — down by half compared to January, before the restrictions began. In the thread, data showing that exports to the US actually increased over the same period sparked comments like “Is Japan being singled out?”, while others pushed back with more level-headed takes focused on refining technology and profitability.
[Beijing, Kyodo] According to trade data released on the 20th by China’s General Administration of Customs, exports of rare-earth magnets to Japan in July totaled 111 tons, down by half year-on-year. This is believed to reflect export restrictions on Japan imposed in response to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Diet remarks on a Taiwan contingency. The figure was also down by half compared to January this year, when the restrictions began, and down 13.6% from the previous month.
Rare-earth magnet exports had exceeded 200 tons every month from last July through this February, before dropping into the 180-ton range in March. By May and June, they had fallen further to around 120 tons. This is believed to be due to strict export controls on materials such as dysprosium, which is used to enhance magnet performance.
Global exports of rare-earth magnets in July totaled 5,375 tons, down 4.9% from the previous month.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
Broken down by fertilizer type, Japan still depends heavily on China for certain materials — for example, about 72% of its ammonium phosphate comes from China.
Do they even check for heavy metals?
If they cut it off completely, that's exactly when Japan would come and take it by force.
>>48
Funny how the same crowd losing their minds over Rakuten's interceptor drones is totally fine with China's dual-use (military/civilian) rare earths. Bit of a contradiction.
Their robotics tech really is impressive — humanoid robots running marathons and playing soccer, that level. If Japan can't beat China on tech, we really will end up groveling, so I hope Japan somehow pulls through.
If it's that precarious, maybe don't start a fight in the first place.
Inflating GDP by 20% — China's been pulling this kind of stunt for years.
"One Rebuke from Xi and GDP Gets Revised" — Liaoning Province's nominal GDP drops 20%
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASGM21H99_R20C17A8EA2000/
What do you make of this?
> Exports to the US were 647 tons, up about 33% from the previous month and about 5% year-on-year
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a8ae08a183fd9b88e5bca54e52684d96a4b3fed8
lol (草 = 'lol')
Japan's the only one who got the ladder pulled out from under them. That's rough.
Per >>45, US imports of rare earths from China are actually increasing.
Makes you wonder how much longer BYD owners will even be able to get repair parts…
Whether it's actually being "cut back" is unclear. The amount approvable per application review has gone down, but that seems to be a deliberate move to prevent stockpiling and force inventories to be drawn down — so as long as economic activity keeps consumption flowing, you could just as easily call it "normalization" rather than a cut.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3huZOQWQAARKF2.jpg
China keeps bragging "Our rare-earth refining tech is #1 in the world!!!" but 🇯🇵 Shin-Etsu Chemical achieved ultra-high-purity 6N (99.9999%) purity back in 2024. In other words, Japan has the technology — it's just not profitable enough to mass-produce. Team up with the US and full rare-earth self-sufficiency is well within reach.
Apparently the US is fine just importing from China — see >>45.
> "not profitable enough"
That's the most important part right there.
And that same America buys from China too. Why do you think that is? Because doing the refining themselves would wreck the environment. It's precisely because they've outsourced the dirty work to China that things became so concentrated there in the first place. You're skipping way too much of the backstory and letting personal wishful thinking take over. The question is whether this is actually feasible, not whether it props up the Takaichi administration's approval ratings. Please, let's talk about reality here.
Though it looks like the US is stepping in to make up the shortfall.
Meanwhile, it looks like the US is importing huge amounts from China lol
Then just import it from America instead. These days only idiots and the trash media [マスゴミ, a slur blending "mass media" and "garbage"] still blindly believe in economic sanctions.
You sound like something out of Otokojuku 🤣 (an over-the-top macho manga/anime famous for absurd bravado)
Idiot lol. Every single rare-earth export from China comes with strings attached.
Is China some kind of masochist, strangling itself like this? And with their maritime expansion — planting flags near Guam, the Mariana Trench, picking fights with US territories left and right — they're really no different from Russia.
That's what people keep saying, but if you average out nominal and real GDP, Japan's growth rate has basically been hovering around 0% in real terms. By the way, when exactly is China supposed to collapse? People have been saying "it's over" since 2008 and it's still going. Can you give an actual year? Why not run on that in an election, take power, and decouple from China? Because the LDP sure isn't going to decouple from China. Do you have any idea how many Japanese companies operate in China? There's no way the LDP can pull that off.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “China’s Rare-Earth Magnet Exports to Japan Halved in July, Compared to Before Restrictions”.
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