A Japanese lawmaker’s claim that China has its eyes on “a treasure trove” of resource wealth hidden beneath the Antarctic ice sheet has been dismissed by a polar law expert as a misreading of international obligations.
But the claims made in parliament by Mitsuhiro Yokota, a member of the Japan Innovation Party, have also raised questions about what might happen to the world’s last great wilderness in future.
“Beneath Antarctica lies a treasure trove of oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, gold and platinum,” Yokota told a Foreign Affairs Committee in the Diet on May 15.
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“China naturally wants to acquire Antarctic resources. After all, they are talking about taking resources from the moon.”
Antarctica is a lucrative area for countries like China and Russia
Yokota, whose party forms part of Japan’s governing coalition alongside Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, went further.
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