China Targets Dozens of Japanese Firms With Export Curbs Over Military Concerns

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday added 20 Japanese companies and institutions to a new export-control “list of concerns,” tightening restrictions on shipments to those entities of dual-use goods and technologies and explicitly blocking any exports deemed to “contribute to the enhancement of Japan’s military strength.”

Those named include Subaru Corporation, ENEOS Corporation, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, TDK Corporation, Hino Motors, and Nitto Denko Corporation, alongside aerospace firms such as Fuji Aerospace Technology and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace.

The list also covers industrial and electronics suppliers Yashima Denki, Nissin Electric, Tokin Corporation; chemicals and materials firms NOF Corporation and Nacalai Tesque; and research bodies including Institute of Science Tokyo.

Under the measures, Chinese exporters are barred from using fast-track licenses, must apply for export licenses on a case-by-case basis, and must submit risk assessments and provide written assurances that exports will not support Japanese military users or defense-related end uses.

Beijing said entities may apply for removal from the list only after cooperating with verification by China’s Ministry of Commerce.

On Tuesday, Japan’s head of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, Masaaki Kanai, called the restrictions “absolutely unacceptable.”

“The measures announced today will never be tolerated. This is deplorable indeed. We strongly protest to China and urge them to lift [the controls],” Kei Sato, Japan’s deputy chief Cabinet secretary, said during a routine briefing on Tuesday.

Sato said the contents of China’s measures would “need to be examined.”

“We will take actions accordingly,” he said.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whose party overwhelmingly won a snap election on Feb. 8, said last year that a crisis involving Taiwan—such as Chinese “armed actions” including the deployment of warships—“could constitute a survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially justifying a military response.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, to be taken by force if necessary. After Takaichi made her comments about a potential crisis involving Taiwan that could enable Japan to deploy troops, the CCP began an extensive retaliatory campaign against Japan. That has included warning Chinese citizens against traveling to Japan and canceling Japanese cultural events.

Takaichi has rejected the regime’s demand to retract her earlier comments, saying they align with the government’s long-standing stance on Taiwan, which lies just 68 miles from the tip of Japan’s westernmost island, Yonaguni.

China had already imposed similar curbs on Jan. 6, when it tightened controls on dual-use exports to Japan, again citing similar concerns.

At the time, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said that Japan has sought to diversify its supply chains away from China, seeking alternatives in countries such as Australia and Malaysia, since it began facing China’s rare earth export restrictions in 2010.

“The current consensus, at least among G7 nations, is that this practice—securing monopolistic positions through non-market means, and then using it as a weapon—is unacceptable,” Katayama told reporters. “It poses a crisis for the global economy and is extremely problematic in terms of economic security.”

The recent controls are written broadly enough to affect rare-earth materials such as gallium, germanium, graphite as well as advanced manufacturing equipment, and specialized magnets if China chooses to apply them that way. Beijing dominates the extraction and production of those and other critical materials at nearly every stage of the supply chain.

Rare-earth elements, a group of 17 metals, are crucial for modern military technology as well as for high tech, electric cars, and renewable energy sources.

For example, according to critical minerals consultancy SFA (Oxford), rare earths are vital in high-performance permanent magnets, guidance systems, lasers, and sensors. They enable superior performance in stealth aircraft, nuclear submarines, and missile defense systems,

Japan is the largest importer of rare earth metals in the world, according to Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) data.

In 2024, Japan imported over 5.2 million kilograms of rare earth metals from China, equivalent to 63 percent of its total imports of rare earth metals, according to a recent report by the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Takaichi in Tokyo on Oct. 27 to sign a critical minerals and rare earths deal.

“I would like to realize a new golden age of Japan–U.S. alliance, where both Japan and the United States will become stronger and also more prosperous,” Takaichi said.

“I am ready to promote further collaboration with you and the United States.”

Dorothy Li, Travis Gillmore, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.