Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Rare earths are a resource China has repeatedly used as an export-control lever, so "if Japan can produce its own, the balance of leverage changes" is an easy idea to share under the heading of economic security. At the same time, the cost of lifting mud from the deep sea and separating and refining it is a well-worn counterpoint, so optimism and skepticism formed at once. The 54% figure refers to the share of medium and heavy rare earths within the total rare earth content of the recovered mud; how much rare earth was actually obtained from the 50 tons has not been disclosed, and the work remains at the test-recovery and feasibility stage rather than any immediate break from China. The tourism story—Beijing urging citizens to avoid Japan after Prime Minister Takaichi's remarks on a Taiwan contingency, with Chinese visitors going to South Korea instead—was consumed as a topic where domestic frustration over tourist crowding overlapped with feelings about China. Reports confirm both the shift in Chinese visitor numbers and rising anti-China sentiment in South Korea, though how directly the two connect is not established. The history remark drew corrections from across the political spectrum, because the atomic bombs were dropped by the United States.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Resource hopes with cost caveats — "Japan could become a resource power overnight" sits directly beside "the problem is cost" and "it's meaningless if you can't extract it."
  • Reading the number correctly — Commenters pointed out that 54% is a share of the rare earth content, not a yield from the mud itself, and that the actual yield was not released.
  • Detached amusement at the tourism shift — Reactions treated Chinese visitors going to South Korea and the reaction there as someone else's problem, with a minority arguing Japan should learn to protest too.
  • Correcting the historical error — Flat statements that the United States dropped the bombs, mixed with lament about what that says for schooling.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Rare earth mud off Minamitorishima found to be about 54% medium and heavy rare earths

About 50 tons of mud recovered off Minamitorishima was reported to contain medium and heavy rare earths accounting for roughly 54% of its total rare earth content, drawing both hopes of domestic production and doubts about cost.

Sources: Mainichi

Comments:

  • "Japan could turn into a resource power overnight. China must be going pale."
  • "The problem is cost."
  • "I guess the idea is to mine rare earths for stockpiling as national policy rather than leaving it to the private sector. They decided recently to stockpile while buying is still possible, but when buying is cheaper than digging, you end up buying anyway…"
  • "The rare earth share measured against the 50 tons of mud is being kept secret, so the rare earth content of the mud could be 100% or it could be 0.0001%. In other words it was a total bust—if it had been good they'd be crowing about it."
  • "Who is putting out this garbage fake news about something that can't be put to practical use? Even if it's in there, it means nothing if you can't extract it."
  • "The fact that Boss Trump hasn't demanded a cut yet means it's a wartime-communique announcement. He's a nice clear canary in the coal mine, that boss."
  • "The one who really won't allow it is Daddy America, as always. They will absolutely never let Japan win on its own."
  • "Japan can't develop with pollution be damned the way China does. In Africa they develop that way too, and it's led to riots and attacks on Chinese nationals."
  • "Instead of scattering money overseas, put more of it into things like this."
  • "It'll at least be a card to play if there's an export ban—they're going to keep throwing their weight around regardless."

Chinese tourists shift to South Korea, and anti-China sentiment rises there

After Beijing urged its citizens to avoid travel to Japan, Chinese tourists went to South Korea instead, and reports described anti-China sentiment rising there.

Sources: Yahoo! news

Comments:

  • "Good for you, Koreans—you've overtaken Japan."
  • "Thank you, PM Takaichi. Thank you, Xi Jinping. Tough luck, Korea lol."
  • "Let the pot and the kettle grind each other down 🎶"
  • "Heartwarming news ☺️"
  • "Japanese people get jealous when China and South Korea get along, so Korea, please do stay close with China 😊"
  • "They boil over and overreact immediately, but it's about time Japan learned from protests like this and held some too. We have to take back a Japan that's been made a fool of from every direction—and I'd like to throw out the nuisances at home who do nothing but spout discrimination while we're at it."
  • "Good news in all sorts of ways."
  • "By all means, I want Chinese visitors to travel to South Korea, and afterward I hope they don't say half-asleep things like 'Japan was better' and just keep going to Korea."
  • "There's a sense they look down on South Korea, so they'll probably behave worse there than they would in Japan."
  • "I want to hear more stories like this ♪"

A claim that China fired nuclear weapons at Japan

A 17-year-old influencer said China was a country that had held nuclear weapons and fired them at Japan, and commenters corrected the record.

Comments:

  • "That was America."
  • "A defeat for compulsory education."
  • "It's sad, honestly… he never got a proper education. He's completely a victim of the adults around him."
  • "The country that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan was China 🇨🇳"
  • "Even granting for the sake of argument that China fired it, that would be Chiang Kai-shek, which is today's Taiwan—so all it would mean is that today's Taiwan fired on us and today's China did not."
  • "This is what failed education looks like."
  • "He says idiotic things on purpose to farm impressions."
  • "China used nukes? That's a country that wouldn't need nukes to bring Japan down—already true back in the last war."
  • "Wasn't he saying not long ago that life is all about studying? Did he quit? The studying, I mean."
  • "Worshipping the America that dropped the bombs while hating the China that invaded—the rest of the world must find that strange. But I never imagined Japanese people themselves would rewrite history to say China dropped the bombs."