Japan launches survey of Pacific for rare earth metals

20 January 2013 Last updated at 22:10 ET Help

Japan is ready to start a survey of the Pacific Ocean, hoping to find large deposits of rare earth minerals, below the ocean floor.

Used in everything from electronic devices to electric cars, securing a source of the metals would help Japan rely less on supplies from China.

As the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo, the Japanese are motivated by political as well as economic concerns.

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