The initiative, led by a government-backed project, aims to reduce reliance on imports and strengthen national security.

TOKYO: Japan will from January attempt to extract rare earth minerals from the ocean floor in the deepest trial of its kind, ...

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science ...

Japan's lucrative $26 billion deep-sea find could be rendered worthless after a technological breakthrough. A survey by The Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo found a field of dense ...

While rich mineral deposits promise centuries of supply, critics argue Japan’s deep-ocean venture risks an irreversible ‘race to the bottom’.

When China began its crackdown on the sector some fifteen years ago, there were hundreds of miners and processors. By 2013 ...

Japan will begin test mining for rare-earth-rich mud from the deep seabed off Minamitori Island, some 1,900 kilometres (1,180 ...