Japan Government Supports Strategic 30 Metal Resource Acquisition

Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan reported Japanese governmental strategy to secure mineral resources on Wednesday. The government selected especially important 30 metal resources and showed policy to appropriate financial and governmental supports for securing these metal resources. The government plans to activate comprehensive cooperation in metal resource securing by provision of technical packages or utilization of official development assistance (ODA). The government will also offer participation of final metal users.

The ministries pointed out it is difficult for private enterprises, except for major metal resource companies, to continue medium/long term investment in metal resources since there are numbers of resources, demand conditions are volatile for rare earths and rare metals, while politics or societies are unstable in some countries where metal resources are located.

On this recognition, Japanese government tries to advance acquisition of equity metal resources especially for strategic metal resources selected by the ministries. The government provides public supports such as technical packaging required by metal resource countries through Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporatin and other related institutions or strategic utilization of ODA. The government promotes participation of Japanese automakers, electric appliance makers and other metal users in resource acquiring activities.

At the same time, the government accelerates new technology development for alternate materials and less metal consumption as well as promotion of metal recycling.