Japan’s Agriculture minister quits over rice crisis
Taku Etō resigned after saying that he personally had too much rice in a country where the price of the staple food has been steadily rising for several months, caused by greater consumption sparked by a tourism boom, and by regulated output. Rice is now a pawn in tariff negotiations with Washington.
Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Taku Etō, Japan’s Minister of Agriculture, resigned today after sparking a controversy after he was quoted as saying that he had “never bought rice myself because my supporters donate so much to me that I can practically sell it”.
This particularly unfortunate statement comes at a time when the price of rice has become one of the most tangible indicators of popular discontent in the country, aggravating a political crisis that has gripped the administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whose popularity was already at an all-time low of 24.7 per cent due to the rising cost of living.
In March, the price of rice was up by as much as 90 per cent over the previous year, marking the most significant increase in the last 50 years. On average, 5kg of rice cost US$ 30 with the first faint signs of a trend reversal visible only in May.
Rice costs so much because of lower production, while demand has increased. In the past year, rice consumption jumped more than seven million tonnes, up by 100,000 tonnes from the previous year. A similar increase had not been seen for years.
The westernisation of eating habits has in fact favoured the consumption of wheat at the expense of rice, but higher wheat costs due to the Russia-Ukraine war seem to have contributed to a reversal.
In addition, the tourism boom in 2023 and 2024 has also had an impact. In the first half of 2024 alone, Japan welcomed 7.78 million tourists, one million more than pre-pandemic levels. If foreign visitors consumed rice at every main meal, demand inevitably soared.
At the same time, supply has decreased, blamed on an excessively hot summer that damaged the 2023 harvest and is still being paid for – rice is harvested once a year, stored and then distributed gradually.
According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), few crops are as vulnerable to climate change as rice: a 1°C increase in the minimum temperature leads to a 10 per cent drop in production.
In addition to climatic contingencies, social habits and government choices also influenced harvest output.
In Japan fewer farmers grow rice. Increasingly, young people are no longer attracted to this profession and the average age of farmers is rising.
As a result of changing eating habits, the government moved to prevent an oversupply. For this reason, it quietly limited rice production for decades adopting a policy known as Gentan Seisaku (acreage reduction policy).
Introduced in the 1970s and formally ended in 2018, the policy would see farmers paid to plant less rice to keep prices stable. And some elements remain in place, most notably subsidies to alternative crops such as soy and animal feed.
To contain the effects of the current crisis, the government decided in March to open its reserves and release about 300,000 tonnes of rice – a measure usually meant only for real emergencies.
The effects were not felt until recently, due to very slow distribution, while the Minister of Agriculture insisted on the imminent arrival of stocks, fuelling public pessimism, The Japan Times reported.
Meanwhile, imports from South Korea (the first time since 1999), Thailand and especially California are up. The US state remains Japan's main supplier despite the current trade tensions with the United States.
According to The Japan Times, rice could be a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States.
For its part, the government continues to protect domestic production through import tariffs because farmers represent a solid electoral base for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but a lower tariff for US rice might be considered.
For now, ordinary Japanese and farmers continue to protest, marking a sharp decline in the popularity of the ruling party, in office almost uninterruptedly since the end of the Second World War.
In April, a significant number of farmers rallied for the first time in Tokyo in what was characterised as Reiwa no hyakusho ikki, a modern peasant uprising.
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12/02/2016 15:14
19/07/2005
