Japan is months away from running out of yttrium, a rare earth used in chipmaking, car parts and jet engines, and has asked the United States to push China to ease its export controls. The Financial Times reported the warning on 20 October, citing unnamed Japanese officials and trading-house executives. According to the FT, the controls threaten severe disruption to the global car, defence and chip industries.
The story is about more than one obscure metal. According to the FT, US defence supply chains rely heavily on Japanese parts that contain yttrium. That means a shortage in Japan could quickly become a problem for its allies too.
In brief
- Japan is months from running out of yttrium and has asked the US to press China to ease rare-earth export curbs, the FT reports.
- Officials warned that serious shortages could begin as early as the end of this year, according to the FT.
- Argus price data cited by the FT puts yttrium oxide at about $1,150 a kilogram outside China, against about $9 inside it.
What the FT reported
According to the FT, as relayed by the Korean news agency Newspim, Japan has urgently asked both the US government and major companies to persuade China to change course. Japanese officials and executives at large trading houses warned that serious shortages could materialise from as early as the end of this year. That would happen, they said, unless China changes its export-control policy or Western allies secure substitutes or extra stocks.
One unnamed Japanese official described the situation in stark terms, the FT reported. The official said keeping supplies flowing to downstream industries had become very difficult, that stockpiles were steadily falling and that efforts to use less rare earth had reached their limits. The time left was a matter of months, not years, the official said, and failing to act now would create a systemic risk to the world economy.
Why yttrium matters
Yttrium is a heat-resistant rare earth metal. According to the FT, it is essential for car parts, semiconductor manufacturing and the jet engines used in fighter jets and other aircraft. That spread of uses is why a shortage would hit several industries at once.
The price gap shows how tight supply has become. Citing the commodity price agency Argus, the FT reported that yttrium oxide outside China costs about $1,150 a kilogram, 179 times more than two years ago. Inside China, the same material costs about $9 a kilogram.
| Yttrium oxide | Price (Argus, via FT) |
|---|---|
| Outside China | About $1,150 per kg |
| Inside China | About $9 per kg |
| Change outside China | 179 times higher than two years ago |
That gap reflects China’s grip on the market. According to the FT, China effectively dominates the mining and processing of rare earths and has used that position as a key weapon in its trade war with the Trump administration. It tightened its export controls on Japan further after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke about a possible Taiwan contingency, the report says.
Washington and Tokyo look for a response
The two allies are already talking. The FT reported that the US and Japan held a meeting of a critical minerals emergency response team, involving the US Department of Energy and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Japan has also impressed on the US how serious the situation is, so that affected American companies raise it with China, according to the report.
Outside experts see little quick relief. Gracelin Baskaran, who leads the critical minerals security programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, told the FT that Japan’s alarm was justified. She said the country was likely to absorb a significant blow for some time.
Other governments are also trying to reduce their dependence on Chinese supply. TSN has covered the EU’s understanding with China on faster rare-earth export licences, the European Commission’s new critical raw materials projects and construction starting at Arafura’s Nolans project in Australia.
Several things remain unclear. The FT’s Japanese sources are unnamed, and Japan has not published how much yttrium it holds in reserve. Newspim’s account of the report does not include a response from Beijing.
How we sourced this
The FT’s report is paywalled. TSN read its headline and opening line, and relied on Newspim’s detailed Korean-language account of the FT story for the rest, translating it ourselves. The Japanese official and the CSIS analyst are paraphrased rather than quoted, because their words reached us through translation. A separate English summary by Breaking The News matches Newspim on Japan’s request to the US.
Our read
This is TSN’s analysis. If the FT’s sources are right, yttrium shows how a small-volume material can become a choke point for chips, cars and defence at the same time. For companies that buy Japanese components, the practical step is to ask suppliers now about their yttrium exposure rather than wait for shortages to show up in delivery dates. The open question is whether US pressure on Beijing produces export licences before Japan’s stocks run down.
Sources
- Financial Times: Japan ‘months’ from running out of critical rare earth as China squeezes supply, 20 October 2026 (paywalled)
- Breaking The News: Japan said to ask US to push China to ease rare earth curbs, 20 October 2026
- Newspim: 日, 핵심 희토류 이트륨 수개월 내 고갈 위기…미국에 中설득 요청 (report on the FT story, in Korean), 20 October 2026
Related stories
- EU and China Say They Will Ease Rare-Earth Export Licences. It Is an Understanding, Not a New Rule
- Arafura Breaks Ground at Its Nolans Rare Earths Project in Northern Territory, Australia
- European Commission Selects 46 New Critical Raw Materials Strategic Projects. The Label Is Not Funding
Follow @tsnmediahub on X for breaking AI news as it happens.
Follow on X
