How Japan's $26 Billion Discovery Might Change Its Fortunes | @AbroadinJapan #135

Summary

Japan has uncovered a $26 billion mineral reserve off its coast near Minami tor IMA Island, which could greatly impact its economy by securing rare earth minerals vital for the tech and auto industries. However, converting this underwater wealth into economic gain requires sustainable extraction methods, especially as Japan seeks to become more self-reliant amid global shifts towards electric vehicles and increased competition in mineral resources.

Highlights

• Japan's $26 billion discovery could revolutionize its economy by providing essential rare earth minerals needed for electric vehicle production and tech industries ⚡
• A remarkable underwater mineral field near Minami tor IMA Island holds 230 million tons of manganese, among other valuable metals 🏝️
• The newfound resources are crucial as Japan seeks supply chain independence, especially in the face of challenges from China in securing rare earth minerals 🌐
• Potential impact on Japan's automobile industry with the ongoing global shift to electric vehicles 🚗
• Challenges remain in extracting and refining these underwater resources without interfering with marine ecology 🌊

Key Takeaways

• Japan has discovered a $26 billion mineral deposit that may boost its tech and automobile sectors 🚀
• As Japan aims for supply chain independence, this discovery might play a crucial role in the country's economic strategy 🌐
• The extraction and processing methods of the minerals will be crucial to realizing their full economic potential! 🏗️

Overview

Japan has recently uncovered a staggering $26 billion mineral treasure trove beneath the ocean floor near Minami tor IMA Island, potentially reshaping its economic landscape. Found in a vast underwater mineral field, the discovery includes 230 million tons of manganese, among other critical metals like nickel and cobalt—essential for electric vehicles and tech devices, marking a significant stride for Japan’s technological and automobile sectors.

While this discovery opens up new possibilities for Japan, it still comes with several challenges. Extracting and processing these valuable minerals without endangering marine life is a primary concern. Nevertheless, if managed properly, this could reduce Japan's dependency on foreign minerals, particularly amid growing concerns over China's control in the rare earth market.

Despite the potential $26 billion valuation, it's essential to consider the costs of sustainable extraction methods. The mining and refinement process will require innovation and care to prevent environmental damage. However, with a strategic approach, Japan could significantly bolster its economy and technological capabilities over the coming decades.

How Japan's $26 Billion Discovery Might Change Its Fortunes | @AbroadinJapan #135 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I mean it's momentous but it should be taken with a grain of salt unless it's known what methods will be used to convert the materials into monetary values I like to take my crisp with a grain of salt sea salt flavor wow hello welcome to the abon Japan podcast probably the best way of learning about life in Japan without actually being in Japan I'm your host Chris broad we're joined as always by England's top Japan Enthusiast Mr Pete Dawson himself Pete how the devil are you doing what's going on Hello darling yes I'm um I'm very excited Chris um
• 00:30 - 01:00 we're recording this a few days in advance and it's just come off the back of the uh the the old game awards um that they do every single sort of winter time around this time in Los Angeles um and I've just noticed the the The Witcher The Witcher four um little sort of teaser teaser trailer has dropped so that's pretty exciting that's a that's a big get for that uh for that competition has to be said how exciting and there's Grand Theft Auto naturally won the most anticipated game of
• 01:00 - 01:30 I would imagine so surprise surprise I mean that is there's a lot of people in the gaming industry who is absolutely who are absolutely gagging for grand theft or or 6 to um to to give the whole industry a boost uh whether a drops next year or not who knows but uh yeah there's a lot of people hoping that uh that they're going to um that they're going to be uh that it's going to help boost the the entire industry yeah it's going to be good I I actually if I had one dream right now it would would be to
• 01:30 - 02:00 sit go to the UK and sit in a country house and eat Christmas food and play the brand new Indiana Jones video game I love Indiana Jones it's my favorite thing growing up as a kid I wanted to we the Fedora raid a temple go in a cave steal some Treasures which is ironic cuz that we have $ 26 billion dollar worth of treasure coming up in today's story and I just yeah I just love the escapism of it all and the game looks really good and I'm light the reviews are decent I'm
• 02:00 - 02:30 going to do a little uh stream with uh American Pete hopefully in the days ahead uh we're going to do it there but like I just want to play it but I can't cuz I got 500 videos to do and I got to get everything out the door before I can relax like in the world of a YouTuber December is like one of the busiest months right you get the videos out and then everybody takes January off just because the ad revenue is like three times in December January than it is in January right so if you made a video naturally you want to get it out when
• 02:30 - 03:00 the ad revenue is going to be higher uh and it helps fund the costs of some of the videos and whatnot so we got the big old earthquake documentary coming out which will be out uh a few days after this podcast actually that's going to be exciting um and then we got a wacky weekend a bit later on so there's a lot of things happening a lot happen a lot happening yeah lovely just want to play play well I I uh I think I got up at um 6: a.m. on the wrong day to do a
• 03:00 - 03:30 um a bron band podcast um and I texted you I said I'm ready I'm sat in this chair and I've drank an energy drink and you said uh Peter it it's actually tomorrow I was like oh no I've drank an energy drink I can't go back to sleep now so I was like all right fine I'll download bloody Indiana Jones then I'll play that for a bit it wasn't out yet it wasn't out yet which is very upsetting so so now I'm I'm so so now I've I've I've bought it I've downloaded it but just pre- Christmas too bloody busy to
• 03:30 - 04:00 find the time to actually play it so what are you going to do have you got a good computer that can run it R Racing yeah I got good I got a good computer can run it R Racing i' I've actually seen it running on a steam deck couple of updates later it's um it is actually running um it's running surprisingly okay on yeah pretty much a lot lot of upscaling AI style but um uh except all of their eyes are like glowing really weird like a really weird apparation of
• 04:00 - 04:30 the of the engine everything seems to be fine apart from but like again with with um Indiana Jones there have been no good game well there've been a lot of good games but there've been no games that have been anticipated and has been and have come out and sort of went oh my God this as good as you kind of expected it to be Dragon Age maybe one but um yeah Indiana Jones has been sort of uh it's always had some stinking games but every now and again um that series had one back in the day there was a um Indiana
• 04:30 - 05:00 Jones p and click adventure and F of Atlantis uh that I very much enjoyed and that was that that was a real highlight of the Lucas Arts sort of '90s era um but since then you've had the infernal machine and a couple of other sort of things but they they've never really got it right Batman's had a few more games than a few more decent games over Indiana Jones but this one looks like they've got it right they know what they're doing um wulfenstein uh you know the their versions of their Renditions of yeah machine games right yeah of of blacka witch black witch blazovich I
• 05:00 - 05:30 think it's blazovich um their rendition of wolfenstein's world was absolutely stunning amazing we've never played those games really good stuff uh but yeah the um Indiana J I'm really looking forward to playing it and I just know for a fact I never will even though I've downloaded it and on my machine it looks like they've essentially made like a film that you can play right there's a lot of cut there like something like 4 hours of cutcenes and uh maybe I made that up maybe it's 3 hours but uh it looks like they've captured the pacing of it right Indiana James doesn't just have a machine gun he he uh uses the world
• 05:30 - 06:00 around him and in the game you like pick up items and use those like a everything from a frying pan to a dust bin to like knock out Nazis it looks kind of fun it's a stealthy game is it it's a stealthy game it is quite stealthy I like uh yeah just that the the the interactivity with the world like going there's three or four massive Maps they theyve built the Vatican they've done Egypt in the pyramids and they did uh somewhere I think in Thailand and uh yeah just the just looks really good man
• 06:00 - 06:30 and uh just what I need so maybe in the new year I will find a way I'm traveling a lot if I can get it on a steam deck that'll be wonderful just need somebody to buy me a steam deck this Christmas isn't that right Santa Pete you've got a you've got a um I brought you an Ever kid you got an Ever steam deck though is it steam deck is it play your street fighter on the ever kid uh I'm going to ask this week that you read the story because my nose is a bit rubbish my voice believe my voice sh your nose out for crying out loud go s your nose I'll
• 06:30 - 07:00 read okay it's Jason from Hong Kong he's back guys if indeed he's ever there before hi guys my wife and I visited Tokyo in Late July and we stayed at a hotel in ikuko the hotel staff were friendly and the food was excellent one night after a long day of during the city we had finished snacking on a wealth of comini food and drink and realized our room's bin was completely full a common problem it's fair but not wanting to leave sticky rappers throughout the night um my wife called the front desk to ask the staff to take away the rubbish my wife spoke spoke
• 07:00 - 07:30 English when making this request and the staff on the other end of the phone line immediately said no problem and a few minutes later we got a call from the front desk and the male staff said could you please open the door behind the door stood a female member of Staff who was holding out two luggage tags confused my wife slowly passed the bin Across the Threshold towards the waiting staff member who pulled a quizzical expression before nodding and accepting the bin long story short it became apparent that the front Des staff had misheard rubbish for luggage and been ready to assist us
• 07:30 - 08:00 with transporting our luggage despite the late hour have you guys had any funny misunderstandings or humorous mistranslations whilst in Japan and trying to overcome the language barriers Jason from Hong Kong I mean are you eating I've just I've just stopped read you eating your Kent crisps you didn't need to blow your nose at all you just wanted some Kent crisps unbelievable you are doing Jason from Hong Kong a disservice um I would say that like
• 08:00 - 08:30 I mean a that's funny but B I would very much have enjoyed the fact that at the end of the um Hotel uh trip and stay they just handed back your rubbish bags with some luggage tags on there you go I've had loads of situations where I've where I've sort of rang down uh to to reception looking for a claw iron now try iron iron iron fuku iron just trying to get a close iron you really have to be at reception to do the little kind of
• 08:30 - 09:00 um kind of you know sh so to speak the gesture of the ey in so uh before anyone can understand what the hell you mean the gesture of theart have you ever had any funny misunderstandings or humorous mistranslations Pete um I sort of yeah I I mean I mean it's mainly ion based if I'm complet completely honest if you stay in the modern kind of business Hotel the Apper and that um most of like the login and the check-in is is done over iPad anyway so um those kind of confusing kind of little escapades can
• 09:00 - 09:30 be avoided a little bit and if you're staying with Chris if you're doing if you're filming with Chris board Chris will check you in for you and just give you your key card so that's good pay for your hotel as I did and pay for my hotel I offer I offered you wouldn't let me you wouldn't let me I bought a dumpling or two in you pay for the sushi though so that was that was good the sushi looks like Japan speaking of no that segue doesn't work how can we tie Sushi you go sushi industry is worth a lot of
• 09:30 - 10:00 money but not as much as the 26 billion do Japan found in the sea near the sushi um Pete what's going on Lovely Japanese researchers have discovered a boy who cannot stop eating Kent crisps uh because if you on YouTube you know what you're doing on the audio version of this people are going to be like Pete nson Pete nson is holding the I mean the Cris I'm eating the crisp you know what they're P they're pach chis youat those
• 10:00 - 10:30 Peach Chris I can't eat probably they're probably very old to be honest best perform there's not even a best before you get all with that new story let oldis you get that new story you eat your crisp um but at least eat them away from the camera you absolute monster um Japanese researchers they've not been sitting around eating crisps they've been working hard un covering uh 230 million tons of Manganese deposits hooray manganese and
• 10:30 - 11:00 metal metal we need it electric vehicles thirst for it um batteries smartphones um basically Japan is trying to do its best to um you know find some kind of um supply chain independent which is obviously the key to a booming economy which is something it doesn't necessarily have right now uh but yeah the discovery was made on the shots fired the uh Theo and they're all made of Manganese the discovery was made on the ocean floor of the Minami tor IMA
• 11:00 - 11:30 Island situated about a th000 miles Southeast of Tokyo um and yeah the University of Tokyo Lads and lasses are been down there digging around with their computers and they've discovered an underwater mineral field containing 740,000 metric tons of nickel and 610,000 metric tons of cobalt this is enough to meet demand in Japan for 11 and 75 years respectively according to the researchers I mean uh when it comes to sort of going down the sofa and
• 11:30 - 12:00 finding a couple of quid or a tener that's I mean that's the best case scenario for most of us but I think finding 11 years of Manganese Independence or 75 years of of some other Independence I mean you've got to be pleased with that um the total value of these resources is estimated at $26 billion if sold at current trading uh prices so um they're going to be digging around in the sea forever and I mean really 26 billion is not much in the grand scheme things though is it in on a
• 12:00 - 12:30 nation I guess in different um I guess in different I guess they're not going to be selling it are they well they will be selling it to to indust support but um yeah we're not going to sell it are we we're not going to sell our Mages we're not going to sell a magnes got to get up um apparently the associate professor of geography and spal Sciences at the University of Delaware said I mean it's mous but it should be taken with a grain of salt unless it's known what methods will be used to convert the materials into monetary values I like to
• 12:30 - 13:00 take my crisp with a grain of salt sea salt flavor st stop talking the Kent crisp more crisps um if you found a deposit of um 26 billion of Kent crisps in in an offshore field I mean it's I mean with this it's all about how they're going to extract it what techniques they are going to use to um to refine it all um so I I don't think it's as easy as just popping your hand in the sea and going get Pete dson down there with a snor and a spade and get us the minerals we
• 13:00 - 13:30 solely deserve especially CU especially cuz like fish fishing and and food is so important in Japan um they've got to be very careful you've got to be very careful if you're getting your manganese out of the ground you heard it here first I've said it once I've said it again the uh well as you know China has pretty much just drawn a big line around the whole of the South trying to seeing God that's ours now and they've you know there's been a lot of heat heat between Japan and China and the sen Kaku islands
• 13:30 - 14:00 and all that and at the end of the day it's mostly about controlling shipping but also minerals right and uh China has a you know a lot of control over the rare earth minerals that we need for batteries and EV like electric vehicles and all sorts and uh I I suspect uh yeah Japan needs all the minerals it can get his hands on right now uh for the road ahead you know animal
• 14:00 - 14:30 mineral vegetable wasn't there a song like that I can't remember it rings a bell animal mineral vegetable I remember video game back in the day I think I might made it up never mind never mind I was looking at a chart the other day and uh in this chart it basically it basically mapped out the next 10 years and in the next 10 years Japan's car industry is really absolutely stuffed because China has uh is dominating the EV Market incredibly
• 14:30 - 15:00 well they control all aspects of producing an electric vehicle particularly sourcing those minerals the batteries that go in the car assembly all the materials and Japan is too busy still with its fingers and the pies of internal combustion and hybrids right and uh I do worry a lot for Japan's car industry in the future um because it's a real sea change up ahead and it's not prep and the usual sort of right moving
• 15:00 - 15:30 slow kind of mentality of Japan the conservatism or whatever I think it's really holding them back and uh China's going to have all the EVS so goodbye they're going to need all that $26 billion and get their hands on you imagine if that in the infrastructure would be such that you could probably um get EV um is it just that there just not enough um kind of charging ports in Japan the problem is simple China can produce the batteries that go in an
• 15:30 - 16:00 electric vehicle uh at such a cost that no other country can in the EU or America even or what you know and I think that's a real problem but maybe tariffs will save us all I don't know tariffs will save us from cars but uh yeah the world will change what do you think you're a man who loves Britain and Kent crisps and stuff like that um what do you think of the new Jaguar the new Jaguar uh an advert that upset a lot of old duffers the Toyota Century um excuse
• 16:00 - 16:30 me WhatsApp group was uh was a Gog at what Jaguar had done to to to the James Bond brand is it James Bond or Aston Martin James Bond whatever like the kind of like wanky brand that old old men who drink Doom b or beer get obsessed about you drove a [ __ ] Jaguar you are that I did drive a jaguar and it was fine it's fine anyone who gets obsessed with particular cars unless it's a Toyota century is an idiot um but yeah it's it was all sort tied up with that kind of like you know British national ISM sort of bollocks um and so there was a lot of
• 16:30 - 17:00 old men getting very upset at the brand new Jaguar but I've seen I saw like the um the picture of It pictures of it I think it looks quite um quite cool very front heavy he got a big old nose on it I think they I like so I like the design of it I thought it was quite interesting I didn't like their ad I thought it was very pretentious and very obnoxious and it didn't need to be that way and they probably alienated a lot of people people s saying oh it's it's very like um you know it was like change yes different oh [ __ ] off it looked like a
• 17:00 - 17:30 sort of advert that we've seen from the 90s it looked like a very it looked quite old and quite [ __ ] really it was absolutely talking though can't say it didn't get people talking it got people talking but I think it probably alienated their core audience that admittedly they don't set a lot of [ __ ] gammons they have set a lot of Gams they're not their target market truly because they you know old people don't generally you know in dead they'll be too dead to care cuz they're old too dead to care but I mean it's a it's a it's silly thing to completely tear up
• 17:30 - 18:00 your brand and start over andm Jaguar on their way out anyway nobody's [ __ ] buying them anymore but uh it time will tell honestly I will assess if the car is good or not but I think they uh whatever they do they probably damage their brand quite a bit from that uh and it's not a good idea to completely alienate your former audience or whatever uh and I think yeah stupid ad interesting concept but that is still a concept right at the end of the day the the finished car isn't going to look
• 18:00 - 18:30 like that apparently it's still a concept so we will see but it it was interesting I like the color the color was kind of not the pink one the the other one kind of cool was like London blue or whatever it was called right yes yeah yeah London blue better London blow for the dads I'll get one um yeah but yeah interesting me we'll see what happens with Jaguar uh we've got a little break and then back with the facts machine with your stories comments and questions wow
• 18:30 - 19:00 now we're back with the facts machine what have we got this week from my listeners Mr Donson fill us in we got a message from s from Poland hello s from Poland hello celian Chris and Pomeranian Pete my girlfriend and I have finally got the opportunity to visit Japan in January as we are planning our journey there is one specific place off the beaten path we want to visit shirakawa not only do you want to see the town but I have another secretive motive uh for going there I'm going to kill her now I'm going to propose to her um is not accessible by train so our
• 19:00 - 19:30 current plan is to go to Takay and either grab a bus from there or rent a car Chris since you've made a few video videos in shirakawa what was your way of getting there and also what are some general tips about traveling to more rural parts of Japan where the trains just don't reach in silly s from Poland would you um you know commit to a life with another person beginning in shirakawa Chris I mean I I spoke to the to a helicopter pilot recently and he was like I was like can I fly who's in kazawa the closest city to Shalo and I
• 19:30 - 20:00 said can I get a helicopter and he was like yes and I just pictured this rustic ancient Village and then just like a helicopters coming in walking out sunglasses off like a [ __ ] influencer the the future that I deserve um alas don't do that that would be very twatty um I drive there I it's it's it is a [ __ ] to each should of cargo and I do drive it there are lots of buses though uh really frequent um go from maybe yeah either kazawa city
• 20:00 - 20:30 which is or takayama city takayama is closer from takama going from takama and uh do go there it is a very nice place it is a nice place shawa but takama is still my favorite much nicer much the place greetings Chris and Pete or probing Pete and catle mutilating Chris there are currently UFO sightings in the UK uh at Raf Lake and Heath and New Jersey with so many questions about what could occupy our skies I was wondering
• 20:30 - 21:00 how Japan typically views the UFO subject is it ostracized like in the US do either of you have any personal stories to share or any interest in the subject beam me up Travis Pete I mean I like I I've always had a fascination with UFOs I don't know what I believe I'm quite skeptical that uh these sightings are just Russian UFOs because if you look at When the UFO sighting started around these military bases RF l he and over New Jersey whatnot it was
• 21:00 - 21:30 literally like a week after the US and the UK gave Russia the G sorry gave Ukraine the green light to strike Russia with long range Munitions and I think it could have been Russia's way of going look at last week and touch you we can get back at you we can reach your air bases uh without scrutiny I don't think it's aliens necessarily but it could be something could be non-human intelligence is the new way of phrasing it right and uh I followed it closely when the some
• 21:30 - 22:00 interesting you know the gimbal video that came out in uh 20 I think it was 2019 or 2017 and I I do follow it but unfortunately didn't didn't they instantly sort of debunk that gimbal video because it was like uh they they hadn't tracked you know the movement you know they where the camera was pointing and stuff no yeah I mean that's usually how it's all goes not complete debunking but yeah it is just like it was an infrared camera and the object was was passing the plane at distance and it had
• 22:00 - 22:30 a parallax effect that made it look like it was moving a lot quicker than it was and nine times out of 10 you can find a solution to what it is um yeah and that's very few that stand up to much um much muster you know I uh I sometimes I want to believe that there's uh something more than this uh and also it can be quite scary sometimes but from all that I I bought the books I've read the books from all these people and unfortunately nothing in the books that I've read indicates that there is much going going on uh that I've seen but
• 22:30 - 23:00 I've got an open mind on the subject and if I saw something compelling then I might be inclined to believe something but yeah I do I do look on the UFO Reddit page quite a lot and again nine times out of 10 they're like I saw something in the sky it was moving without any signs of propulsion it's like it's a [ __ ] balloon mate it's a balloon I work with cameras so I know what things look like and that is a balloon or a bird or an insect or something you know just don't have I just don't have that I it is I hate when someone's got something
• 23:00 - 23:30 on they've got something they really love and they you know a craft or something they're really interested in um somebody goes you've got too much time on your hands but I genuinely believe it is people who do have a few hours spare I don't generally have much time to sort of look into the sky and I wish I did so maybe when I'm older and I'm retired maybe I'll um retired can't that but maybe I'm a bit older and I've got less on maybe I can spend a bit more time looking in the sky going oo but right now I'm like I don't know man like I can't see there's just a shut up a
• 23:30 - 24:00 look in the sky there's nothing really uh there's nothing really that gets me going in the sphere of UFOs and I find people who talk about UFOs and to be honest space in general I find quite tedious I don't know why football Bo bad in it I find football mean wrestling and wrestling and football it's boring like but like I'm obsessed with the work of man not the work of alien alien man shut up I yeah I'm obsessed with a good 442
• 24:00 - 24:30 me ridiculous boy ridic but yeah I I remember when I had an interest a growing interest in UFO stuff I told friends and most of them rolled their eyes and that's fair enough you know I understand alens that's what truth is the truth is you know when the seven to8 billion people on the planet if there was something somebody would film it somebody would have filmed it by now somebody would have showed it online I think um you know and that's all there is to it I I really don't I haven't seen much that's that's been in the way of it's been compelling enough so yeah in
• 24:30 - 25:00 terms of Japan UFO stuff um there's like a a town in Fukushima that believes they have like a special relationship with UFOs like the special relationship between the US and the UK which is about to go in the dust bin but Fukushima yeah there's this mountain and it's a it's shaped like a triangle well it's a very conical mountain and they claim it's a secret pyramid when it's just a [ __ ] conical Mountain um and they've got like a museum with loads of really gy awful
• 25:00 - 25:30 like face masks and drawings of aliens and I was going to go there make a video about it because I was like it's kind of cool Japan's UFO town but it was just rubbish absolute [ __ ] and really boring I might go up there I might try again but uh yeah it sort of trivialized UFOs as well it was like Little Green Men little aliens and it it sort of like removed me from it all so it was uh yeah took me away from it that very cheap butth let's go up there next time you come over we'll go to fukushima's UFO town you would love it you would
• 25:30 - 26:00 actually love it it's a very much a town aimed at people like Pete dson the wacky fol of the world the dreamers the the dreamers the Believers keep the stories questions comments coming in to Brad Japan podcast at gmail.com we back later the week guys do it over again and uh for now have yourself a good one stay out of trouble eat the crisps yeah believe I want to believe I'm very much like you're the fox Moulder and I'm the uh the lady Dana Dana I think it was Dana wasn't it
• 26:00 - 26:30 bye [Music]