HONG KONG  China resumed exports of crucial minerals to Japan on Friday for the first time in almost two months, Japanese government officials and an industry executive said.

Chinese customs agents were not only processing the paperwork for shipments of the minerals, known as rare earths, but were also allowing dock workers to load containers of rare earths on ships bound for Japan on Friday afternoon, the Japanese officials and the executive said.

“Everything is flowing,” said the rare earth industry executive, who insisted on anonymity because of lingering diplomatic sensitivity about the Chinese embargo, which Beijing had never announced or formally acknowledged.

But an official at another company said that delays persisted for its shipments, a difficulty that suggested not all export restrictions had been lifted.