It is the former. The full sentence will be: `()`. `` is literally 'it is difficult to happen' or 'it is rare, and hence a valuable thing'. There is no room for a `...` phrase or `...` phrase to appear within the frame of the predicate; you cannot attribute the rareness to someone.
This kind of phrase is often heard right after Japan had went under a disaster. Among the famous one is, when Japan was about to recover from the disaster of World War II, Yukawa Hideki was given the first Novel prize in Japan, and similar phrases were seen all over in Japan. The text you cited is probably based on the recent earthquake and tsunami diaster that hit Japan.