Actually Japan has invested heavily in creating replacements for certain rare-earths since China (temporarily) cut exports to them a while back. So has the US.

Actually Japan has invested heavily in creating replacements for certain rare-earths since China (temporarily) cut exports to them a while back. So has the US. See "Research: Removing rare-earth" [1] [1] http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/04/releasing-the-rare-earths.cfm http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/04/releasing-the-rare-...