On October 28, 2025, the United States and Japan signed two important agreements in Tokyo: the first reaffirms the previous US-Japan tariff framework, imposing a 15% tariff on all Japanese exports to the US while Japan establishes a US investment fund; the second establishes a framework for US-Japan cooperation in securing critical minerals and rare earth supplies, including allocating funds for rare earth mining.
The New York Times described the agreements as "vaguely worded" and avoiding the core controversy—how Japan will fulfill its $550 billion investment commitment to the US. "Despite the diplomatic goodwill shown by US and Japanese leaders in their first meeting, Japan still faces the challenge of balancing domestic economic burdens with commitments to the US."
Critical Minerals refer to mineral resources with major strategic significance for economic and social development in specific periods and high supply risks, characterized by indispensability, strategic importance, and high resource concentration. The 2025 US critical minerals draft list includes 54 minerals, proposing to add copper, silicon, silver, potassium, lead, and rhenium, remove arsenic and tellurium, and study including metallurgical coal and uranium. Minerals on the US critical minerals list will receive government funding support, and exploration, mining, and refining projects will gain expedited approvals. According to the Financial Times, the US Pentagon plans to procure up to $1 billion (approximately RMB 7.14 billion) in critical minerals as part of its global strategic reserve plan.
Rare earths are one of the US's critical minerals. As a global leader in rare earth reserves and production, in response to the US's previous restrictions on Chinese products and semiconductor equipment exports to China, China's Ministry of Commerce announced on October 9, 2025, export controls on overseas rare earth items, rare earth technologies, rare earth equipment and raw materials, certain medium-heavy rare earths, and lithium batteries.
China's rare earth export restrictions have impacted high-tech development in many overseas countries, including the US. This US-Japan agreement on critical minerals and rare earth supplies is fundamentally the US's effort to reduce dependence on Chinese rare earths.
According to Reuters, most of Japan's rare earth mineral resources are located on the seabed, with extremely difficult extraction. In 2021, Japan discovered over 16 million tons of rare earths on the seabed near Minamitorishima Island in its territorial waters—enough for global use for nearly 730 years—but this deposit remains unmined.
