U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi inked a framework to boost the production and supply of rare earths, to reduce their reliance on China, during Trump's visit to Tokyo.

Tokyo

The United States and Japan have signed a framework agreement focused on securing the supply of critical minerals and rare earth elements. This move is intended to address supply chain vulnerabilities and reduce both countries' reliance on China, which currently dominates the rare earths market.

The agreement comes amid ongoing concerns about supply chain disruptions affecting Japanese and American industries, particularly in sectors like automotive batteries and electronics. The details of the agreement are yet to be fully disclosed, but it is expected to involve cooperation on investment, capacity building, and processing of rare earth materials.

U.S. and Japan sign rare earth deal to curb reliance on China

President Trump, in his remarks when this bilateral meeting began earlier on today, said that the two are going to ink some kind of a trade agreement. Beyond that, we have very few detail. And actually, this was not part of the original agenda. But given the issues surrounding the agreement back in July, where the U.S. and Japan were not seeing eye to eye, and there was a lot of question marks in Japan as to what exactly the two sides agreed to, I think everyone has been wanting to hear what that $550 billion pledge is actually going to amount to. I would expect, if this is a signing ceremony, to take it beyond that and to have found common areas where the two can work together, namely in the area of AI, scientific corporation. I think pharmaceuticals is one. You talked about this a lot earlier with chip building, which has defense capabilities as well. So I think those are possibly all on the agenda. For Sanae Takahichi, this is her chance to leave her own mark on this bilateral summit, because until now, she has been in the shadow of her former mentor, Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated three years ago. And he did have a very strong bond with U.S. President Donald Trump. But beyond that, I think as we've been discussing, the U.S. and Japan should be able to see eye to eye on many events, particularly because she's very hawkish and advocates for a bigger defense spending. We're getting a few more details on this signing agreement, so let's dip into that. It seems they're agreeing on a rare earth procurement. A rare earth, of course, is very critical to Japanese industry, not only for the batteries included in the hybrid cars and with this spat going on between China and the U.S., supply chain issues have been very critical for Japanese corporations. So it looks like an agreement is on rare earths. Martin? Okay, this is very interesting because as very close allies, it would be in the interest of both sides, I think, to cooperate in terms of developing and securing a supply chain for critical minerals and rare earths. And this is obviously to counter what China is trying to do by restricting and curbing exports of its rare earths. So you remember that not so long ago, a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about the U.S. and Australia doing something very similar. We'll have to await details of the agreement with Japan to see what exactly is involved here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it involves investment and cooperation and adding capacity upstream, as well as probably more importantly, the processing side of it, because that is where the West and the U.S. in particular are extremely weak and where China continues to dominate. So this much we know, just to recap, folks. Yeah, go ahead, Kaori. I mean, Japan already has partnerships with other countries in rare earths, with Australia, with France as well. But the bulk of it, as you pointed out, is from China because digging it out of the earth is dirty business ecologically. And so I think that's where the trouble lies. So I wouldn't be surprised given that this is one of the major issues in the supply chain bottlenecks and has continued to dog corporations all over, including Japan and the U.S., that some kind of agreement would be between the two entities. And this, you know, you want to bring this bilateral meeting beyond what's already been agreed to thus far. Indeed. And just to recap for viewers that are just tuning in and joining us, President Trump and Japan's new leader Prime Minister Takechi Sanai have signed a framework for securing the supply of critical minerals and rare earths. So just moments ago we were watching that signing ceremony. That is what this was all about.

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