Japan leans more on China for rare earths despite lower imports

Japan’s reliance on China for rare earths increased last month, despite a reduction in volumes purchased from the world’s dominant producer.

China supplied around 76% of the rare earths imported by Japan in January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from Japanese customs figures. This was 3.4 percentage points more than the proportion for the same month a year earlier, as imports from other nations fell.

In volume terms, however, Japan purchased 1,127 tons of metal equivalent from China last month – 5.7% less than in January 2025. The discrepancy can be explained by the fact that total Japanese imports declined by nearly 10% year-on-year to around 1,478 tons.

Rare earths are essential raw materials in powerful magnets that are ubiquitous across modern manufacturing, from electric vehicles to mobile phones and missile systems.

Importers such as Japan and the US are working to cut their reliance on China, whose dominance of the global supply chain gave Beijing crucial leverage in last year’s trade war with Washington. More recently, China banned exports to Japan of dual-use products with possible military applications – a category that includes rare earths.

“It’s too early to assess the actual impact of the political tensions,” said Tadanori Sasaki, a senior research director at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, adding that at least three months of data would be required to make a fair interpretation.

“Japan’s rare earth import volumes are not smooth or evenly distributed, and show noticeable month-to-month fluctuation,” he said. “This is because the metal applications are limited, and even under normal conditions, the volumes tend to vary significantly.”

While Tokyo is stepping up efforts to diversify supplies, imports from other nations remain relatively small in comparison to those from China. Vietnam was the second-largest supplier in January, shipping around 221 tons of metal equivalent, while France ranked third, with 79 tons.

Imports from Malaysia – where Australian miner Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. has a processing plant – rose by 32% in January to slightly over 1 ton of metal equivalent – a measure that represents pure metal content of the rare earth, based on data supplied by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, or Jogmec.

(By Yusuke Maekawa and Tsuyoshi Inajima)