China is overplaying its rare-earth hand in Japan

COMMENTARY / Japan

China is overplaying its rare-earth hand in Japan

Beijing’s critical-minerals threat is unlikely to rattle Tokyo due to its diversified supply chains

The Bayan Obo rare-earth mine in Inner Mongolia. China cutting off rare-earth exports to Japan over the Taiwan issue will have a limited impact because Japan and other countries have diversified supplies and taken steps to weaken Beijing’s long-term leverage. | REUTERS

By David Fickling
Bloomberg

Jan 11, 2026

To a hammer, every problem is a nail. If your most potent means of geopolitical leverage is threatening supplies of high-strength magnets, rare-earth elements will always be the solution.

That’s the latest approach Beijing is taking in its dispute with Tokyo sparked by comments from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about the possibility of military conflict over Taiwan. Exports of all items with potential military applications to Japan will be immediately banned, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

The most obvious victim of this threat will be rare-earth magnets made with the elements neodymium and praseodymium, and increasingly spiced up with rarer samarium, dysprosium and terbium. They’re used everywhere from charging cables to the switch-gear in wind turbines to motors powering electric vehicles, missile-guidance systems and aircraft flaps.