World Affairs

Japan turns to Greenland in the global race for rare-earth minerals

Japan plans to launch rare-earth and critical-mineral exploration in Greenland this summer, extending a worldwide hunt spanning Central Asia, Australia, Africa and the deep seabed. The move reflects supply-chain anxiety driven by export controls.

• Greenland holds an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of rare-earth reserves, ranking eighth globally; climate warming is reducing ice cover and may lower extraction barriers.
• Japan's rare-earth supply is heavily import-dependent, and recent sharp declines in exports from China have accelerated the search for alternative sources.
• At the G7 summit, Japan called for a joint critical-mineral stockpile mechanism with minimum reserve standards, attempting to turn national resource anxiety into a multilateral agenda.

In summer 2026, a Japanese delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, trading companies, and the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security will travel to Greenland. Their mission: meet local officials, assess mineral deposits, inspect potential mining sites, and study extraction costs. A similar delegation visited an operating feldspar mine in November 2025 and confirmed commercial operations are feasible even in extreme cold.

Greenland has drawn increasing attention for its vast untapped mineral wealth and Arctic strategic position. Rare earths are essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and defense equipment. The US Geological Survey estimates Greenland's rare-earth reserves at 1.5 million tonnes. Harsh climate and fragile ecosystems make extraction challenging — though warming temperatures and melting ice sheets are gradually changing that calculus while intensifying environmental debates.

Japan's mineral hunt now spans the globe. In early 2026, the country launched a seabed rare-earth test-mining operation near Minami-Torishima Island. Analysts note that deep-sea mining still faces major technical and cost hurdles. Shanghai-based researcher Cai Liang observed that Japan is trying to dilute the impact of Chinese export controls by searching globally for suppliers — yet the combination of worldwide prospecting and summit lobbying reveals deep resource anxiety.

At the G7 summit, Japan placed critical-mineral supply-chain security at the center of discussions. This signals that resource security is evolving from a single-nation trade concern into a core dimension of global geo-economic competition.