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Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Japan is sending a delegation including a former prime minister to Vietnam to discuss securing rare earth supplies, before a possible meeting between leaders of the countries on the subject at an Asean summit.

Yukio Hatoyama, who served as Japans premier for eight months till June this year, travels to Vietnam today, Daisuke Haga, his parliamentary secretary for policy said yesterday. Nine lawmakers and ministerial officials are joining the delegation, he said. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, will discuss rare earths at a meeting of leaders the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Hanoi next week, Nikkei English News reported.

Japan is seeking alternative sources of rare earth metals after China, which controls more than 90 percent of world supply, cut export quotas of the materials used in Toyota Motor Corp. hybrid cars as well as disk drives and batteries. Kans government set aside funds to find new sources of the metals in a stimulus plan announced on Oct. 8.

Vietnam would welcome Japans private investment in rare earths and other resources, said Shozo Sakata, a Vietnam specialist at the Institute of Developing Economies at the Japan External Trade Organization. That said, I dont think Vietnam wants to get involved in Japans political games with China because the country, which has had territorial disputes with China, doesnt want to provoke the Chinese.

Yoshikatsu Nakayama, vice minister of economy trade and industry, will travel to Vietnam tomorrow, the trade ministry said in a statement on Oct. 20. The ministry wouldnt confirm who else was traveling to the southeast Asian nation.

Mineral Shortage

Japans stockpiles of rare earth mineral may run out as early as March, Agence France-Presse cited Nakayama as saying late yesterday.

The country may have a shortage of about 10,000 tons of rare earths next year, or more than 30 percent of the countrys annual demand, according to Sojitz Corp., a trading house that imports most of the nations supply.

Toyota Tsusho Corp., a trading company affiliated with Toyota Motor, formed a joint venture with Sojitz and a Vietnamese state-run mining company to import rare earths to Japan from 2012, Katsutoshi Yokoi, a Tokyo-based spokesman, said. Showa Denko K.K., the worlds second-biggest hard-disk maker, opened a rare-earth plant in Vietnam in May this year.

Companies typically stockpile around a half-years worth of rare earth supply, so they should be okay for now, said Shinya Yamada, a Tokyo-based equity analyst covering manufacturing companies at Credit Suisse Group AG.