🔴 The U.S.🇺🇸-🇯🇵Japan have made deals on trade, critical minerals, rare earths, military and technology cooperation.

On October 28, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signed a multi-part framework covering trade, critical minerals, and technology cooperation.  

Key components:

• A framework for securing the supply of rare earths and critical minerals, involving both countries using economic and investment tools, stockpiling, mining & processing cooperation.  

• Cooperation in nuclear power technologies: next-generation reactors, small modular reactors (SMRs) and export cooperation.  

• A trade / investment component: Japan pledged large investments in U.S. industry and markets while trade tensions/tariffs between the two are being addressed. For example, a previous deal announced in July 2025 included Japanese investment of ~US $550 billion in the U.S. and a tariff reduction to 15% for certain Japanese imports.  

• The two leaders reaffirmed economic security cooperation, including in AI, shipbuilding, and other “critical technologies”.  

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🎯 Why it matters

• Rare earths and critical minerals are strategically important for defence, electronics, autos, aerospace. Since China dominates a large share of global supply, the U.S. and Japan see this as a way to diversify supply chains and reduce risk.  

• The investment and trade side signals a deeper economic alignment between the two allies, beyond just defence.

• The nuclear component marks a shift toward Japan returning to reactor exports after its post-Fukushima hiatus.  

• The deal also has geopolitical implications: in the context of U.S.–China competition and the Indo-Pacific security environment. Japan and the U.S. emphasised their “Free & Open Indo-Pacific” vision.  

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⚠️ Key caveats & open questions

• The framework is still broadly defined: many details (which projects, exact investment amounts, timing) are not yet fully public.  

• Some of the trade/investment promises date back to July 2025, with implementation to follow.  

• The rarity element: supply‐chain transitions are long term; the benefit won’t be immediate.

• With Japan pledging heavy investments in the U.S., careful tracking will be needed to see how much is realised, which sectors, what conditions.

• Though China isn’t always mentioned by name in public statements, much of the impetus stems from Chinese supply-chain dominance. This means geopolitical risk and possible retaliation or counter-moves by China may follow.

Trusted news sources: Reuters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan 🇯🇵, The Canadian Press 🇨🇦, Mining.com