TOKYO –
The video explains how a tiny, remote Japanese island called Minami Torishima (Marcus Island) could become one of the most strategically important locations in the world due to enormous deposits of rare earth elements buried in deep-sea mud beneath the Pacific Ocean.
The story begins with China’s decision in 2010 to halt rare earth exports to Japan during a territorial dispute. The move exposed Japan’s vulnerability because rare earths are essential for modern technology, including electric vehicles, wind turbines, advanced electronics, military systems, and high-performance magnets. Although rare earth elements are not actually rare in the Earth’s crust, the ability to mine, process, and refine them is concentrated in a few countries, particularly China.
After the export ban, Japan launched a major effort to diversify its supply. Researchers led by Professor Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo analyzed thousands of deep-sea sediment samples collected across the Pacific Ocean. In 2011, they announced the discovery of vast rare earth deposits on the ocean floor, including one located within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone around Minami Torishima.
Minami Torishima is an isolated coral atoll roughly 2,000 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. The island is tiny—less than one square mile in area—and sits only a few meters above sea level. It has almost no permanent population except rotating personnel from the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The island itself has an unusual history. During the late 19th century, both Japanese and American interests sought to claim it because of its valuable guano deposits. Bird droppings were a major source of fertilizer before modern chemical fertilizers became widespread. An American captain named Andrew Rose Hill attempted to establish a claim, but Japan ultimately secured control after settling Japanese residents there. The United States chose not to challenge Japan’s position, largely because it saw little strategic value in provoking a dispute over a remote guano island.
The island later became a Japanese military outpost during World War II. After the war, the United States occupied it and operated a navigation and weather station there until returning it to Japan in 1968. The island gradually faded into obscurity until rare earth surveys transformed its significance.
The rare earth deposits surrounding Minami Torishima formed through an unusual geological process. Over millions of years, fish bones and teeth accumulated on the ocean floor. These remains contain calcium phosphate, which acts like a sponge, absorbing trace rare earth elements dissolved in seawater. As this process continued over geological timescales, large concentrations of rare earths became trapped within the mud.
What makes the deposits especially valuable is not just their size but their composition. They contain significant quantities of heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium, terbium, europium, and yttrium. These elements are among the most difficult to obtain and are areas where China has traditionally dominated global supply. Heavy rare earths are particularly important for advanced magnets used in electric vehicles, military equipment, and renewable energy technologies.
Some studies have suggested the deposits could contain decades or even centuries of supply for certain rare earth elements. However, the video cautions that reserve estimates are based on limited sampling and may prove less uniform than early headlines suggested.
The biggest challenge is extraction. The rare earth-bearing mud lies only about ten meters beneath the seabed, but the seabed itself is approximately 6,000 meters below the ocean surface. That is far deeper than the Titanic wreck, which rests at around 3,800 meters.
Several mining methods have been proposed over the decades. Bucket systems, which drag collection devices across the seafloor, were found to be inefficient and environmentally destructive. Shuttle systems involving autonomous underwater vehicles proved overly complicated and technologically risky.
Japan’s preferred solution is a pipeline lift system. Under this method, a machine on the seabed mixes mud with seawater to create a slurry. This slurry is then pumped through a long vertical pipe to the surface. Once recovered, the sediment is transported for processing, where acids are used to extract the rare earth elements.
The technology is extremely challenging. It requires operating machinery at depths where pressure exceeds 600 times atmospheric pressure. Japan has spent years developing specialized equipment, including long pipeline systems, compressed-air lifting mechanisms, and monitoring technologies.
Environmental concerns remain significant. Mining would inevitably disturb deep-sea ecosystems that scientists still know relatively little about. Organisms living on the seabed would be directly affected, while sediment plumes could spread through surrounding waters and potentially damage marine habitats. Japan argues that its “closed mining system” minimizes these impacts compared with other methods, but environmental questions remain unresolved.
Another major obstacle is economics. Studies suggest the deposits are difficult to exploit profitably under normal market conditions. Analyses have found that deep-sea extraction costs are generally higher than land-based mining alternatives. Some estimates indicate projects could lose hundreds of millions of dollars over their lifetimes if rare earth prices remain at average levels.
However, the Japanese government views the issue differently. For Japan, the project is not purely about profitability. It is about strategic security. The country still relies heavily on China for rare earth supplies, and policymakers see domestic sources as insurance against future geopolitical disruptions. In this sense, even an economically marginal project could be worthwhile if it reduces supply vulnerability.
A key advantage is that the deposits lie entirely within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This means Japan can regulate the project under its own laws rather than navigating the more complicated international rules that govern mining in international waters. That gives Tokyo greater control over development and environmental oversight.
After years of research and testing, Japan achieved a major milestone in February 2026 when it successfully extracted deep-sea rare earth mud from the Minami Torishima area. The test demonstrated that the technology works in real-world conditions. It followed earlier trials conducted off Ibaraki Prefecture in 2022, where researchers successfully pumped around 70 tons of slurry per day from the seabed.
The next phase is scheduled for 2027, when Japan plans to scale up operations and target around 350 tons of rare earth-bearing slurry per day. Success would move the project closer to commercial viability and help establish technologies that could eventually be used for extracting other valuable seabed resources such as nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and zinc.
The video’s overall conclusion is that Minami Torishima is not simply a remote island with an interesting history. It represents a potentially transformative strategic resource for Japan. While deep-sea mining remains technically difficult, environmentally controversial, and economically uncertain, Japan appears willing to invest heavily because securing a reliable supply of critical minerals may prove increasingly important in a world where access to rare earths is becoming a major geopolitical issue.
Source: Asianometry
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: newsonjapan.com
