Obviously they haven't heard of Mcfauld's yet but they will. Anyway interesting read the future looks bright indeed. Anyone who wants to read more you can find a nice little article about nickel and future japanese needs at bloomberg financial.com

Metal diplomacy

The Japanese government is backing Itochu's efforts to secure a stable supply.

Japan and South Africa agreed on Nov. 15 to jointly develop rare-metal mines and work toward improving the environment for natural resource exploration and the expansion of Japanese firms into South Africa.

South Africa holds rich reserves of rare metals used in precision motors and other products, as well as platinum.

Rare metals are key for many of Japan's high-value-added goods, such as automobiles and cellular phones. With the nation highly dependent on imports of such items, failure to secure necessary quantities of rare metals can endanger the future growth capability.

Japan meets most of its rare-metal needs through imports. Despite the fact that domestic manufacturing would be hit severely if rare-metal supplies were disrupted, Japanese efforts to secure supply sources have lagged behind those of not only the U.S. and Europe, but also some emerging nations whose governments have been actively employing diplomacy to establish supply channels.

Japanese trading houses have stepped up their efforts to develop rare-metal mines.

Sumitomo Corp. plans to join an international consortium to develop a nickel mine in Madagascar.

Sojitz acquired in October a Canadian mining company that owns a working tungsten mine in Portugal. And Itochu aims to develop a platinum mine by cooperating with a local firm.