Japan-Australia rare earths talks highlight neocolonial supply chains and energy transition geopolitics amid global critical mineral scarcity
Original framing: “Japan PM Takaichi plans Australia visit to discuss rare earths, Nikkei reports - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The current rare earths geopolitics echoes 19th-century colonial mineral rushes, where industrial powers extracted resources from colonized territories to fuel their economies, often leaving environmental and social devastation in their wake. Japan’s wartime occupation of Southeast Asia during WWII was driven by resource extraction, including rare earths from China and Indonesia, setting a precedent for today’s supply chain securitization. Australia’s mining sector was built on British colonial land grabs and Indigenous dispossession, a history that continues to shape its role as a primary supplier of critical minerals. The post-war era saw the rise of resource nationalism in the Global South, now countered by neoliberal supply chain strategies in the Global North.
The Japan-Australia rare earths talks exemplify how neoliberal resource governance perpetuates colonial extraction patterns under the guise of 'green transition,' obscuring the deep historical ties between industrialization, war, and mineral plunder.
Australia’s role as a primary supplier is rooted in 200 years of Indigenous dispossession and multinational corporate dominance, while Japan’s push for supply chain security reflects its post-war trauma of resource scarcity and reliance on external suppliers. Cross-culturally, this dynamic clashes with Indigenous ontologies (e.g., Aboriginal Dreamtime or Chinese kami) that view minerals as sacred, not commodifiable, and with Global South movements demanding resource sovereignty. The absence of marginalized voices—Indigenous communities, women in mining zones, and African nations—from these negotiations ensures that the 'solutions' proposed will likely exacerbate inequalities rather than address root causes. A systemic shift requires dismantling extractive paradigms through benefit-sharing funds, Indigenous-led circular economies, and binding international standards, while centering the voices of those most affected by the global hunger for rare earths.