The Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times recently published an article titled, "Japan's plan to recycle rare earth minerals from AC units is unfeasible and reveals its weak points." The report argues that Japan's plan to recycle rare earth elements from air conditioners is not only impractical but also highlights the country's vulnerabilities. The rare earth recovery project discussed in the article was launched last month by Mitsubishi Electric, a major Japanese defense contractor that produces not only home appliances but also radar and missile systems. The reason behind Mitsubishi Electric's decision to extract rare earth elements from discarded air conditioners is clear. China currently holds a near-monopoly on the global production and processing of rare earths, and the Chinese government has been continuously tightening its control over these strategic minerals. Facing the risk of supply chain paralysis if it remains solely dependent on imports, Japan has turned to urban mining—recovering core minerals from electronic waste—as an alternative strategy. Mitsubishi Electric is not working alone on this rare earth recycling project. Its affiliates handle collection and dismantling, while partner companies are responsible for the primary processing—safely and efficiently separating rare earth magnets from the dismantled components. A Japanese chemical company then melts these magnets to refine them into high-purity rare earth elements, including neodymium, which are then reused by Mitsubishi Electric in the manufacturing of new air conditioners. While this resource circulation system appears well-structured, why did Chinese state media dismiss it? Zhang Xiaolong, director of the Beijing Institute of Advanced Technology, cited high costs as the primary reason. According to industry analysis, a typical 1-horsepower Japanese inverter air conditioner contains only about 10.5 grams of pure rare earth elements. Zhang argues that because the amount of rare earth extracted per unit is so small, Japan's plan is merely for show. His analysis suggests that even if large quantities of used air conditioners are imported from overseas, the costs of collection and refining far exceed the price of purchasing raw ore, making the project economically unviable. Zhang added that most of the rare earth elements recycled from air conditioners are light rare earths, with almost no heavy rare earths, which are essential for electric vehicles and military applications. Rare earth elements are categorized into 17 types based on their atomic numbers. Generally, light rare earths are relatively abundant and easier to refine, whereas heavy rare earths are rarer, more difficult to separate and refine, and tend to be more expensive and strategically significant. In February, Japan succeeded in collecting rare earth-rich mud from the deep sea at a depth of 6,000 meters near Minamitorishima. Zhang dismissed this as well, stating that deep-sea mining is also prohibitively expensive and cannot be a short-term solution, as large-scale production is impossible within the next 10 years. He argued that while rare earth resources are distributed across various countries, the bottleneck exists because the entire industrial chain, including refining and processing technology, is concentrated in China. This reflects a confidence that even with alternative resources, it would take a long time to build a fully independent supply chain. How much truth is there in Japan's efforts and China's assessment? When asked, Dr. Han Yo-seop of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) agreed that from a cost perspective, China's assessment is correct. It is also true that heavy rare earths are scarcer than light rare earths, and they are almost exclusively produced in China. Nevertheless, he noted that there is a reason why they have no choice but to do this. On June 30, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce added 20 Japanese companies to its export control list and another 20, including Mitsui E&S, to its monitoring list. According to Japanese government estimates, if imports of Chinese rare earths were completely halted for one year, Japan's real GDP could fall by approximately 7 trillion yen, or 1.3%. Mitsubishi Electric reportedly plans to expand this recycling model from home appliances to commercial systems in the future to further reduce its overseas dependency. This can be interpreted as the beginning of a national-level resource defense barrier, where costs are accepted during normal times to bypass the rare earth supply chain monopolized by China. For South Korea, which has a very high proportion of manufacturing and an even more critical dependence on core minerals than Japan, this is a development that warrants close attention.