America’s elites trusted global trade. Japan trusted reality.

AI BRIEFING

• ⬤ Japan seeks to diversify supply chains and secure industrial resilience, reflecting a recognition that economic security is closely tied to national power, as the US-Japan alliance enters a new phase beyond defense alone.
• ⬤ The US and Japan have signed a framework to secure supply chains for rare earths and critical minerals, aiming to reduce dependence on China's dominant processing capacity, amid growing concerns over global supply chain vulnerabilities.
• ⬤ The Japan-US alliance now looks beyond defense to build industrial capacity, secure strategic autonomy, and influence technologies that will define the next era of power, as nations face a hard question: who offers long-term commitment and who merely shows up to extract what it needs.