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The Mainichi
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
'I won't deny any options': Japan farm minister hints expansion of rice imports possible
TOKYO -- Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi appeared on a TV Tokyo program on the night of May 26 and hinted it would be possible to increase rice imports, stating, "I won't deny any options." This stance diverges from that of the previous farm minister, Taku Eto, who had said, "I have serious doubts (about rice import expansion) as to whether it would address long-term public concerns." Below are Koizumi's key remarks: On the possibility of more flexible rice imports "Currently, Ryosei Akazawa, the minister in charge of economic revitalization, is responsible for the (Japan-U.S.) tariff negotiations, so I don't want to overly restrict the negotiator's freedom. However, as agriculture minister, I do not want him to deal our cards lightly. This is because there are things Japan must protect. That said, what I can say at this moment is that I am also facing the market and that's where my battles are, so I won't deny any options at this point. I'm prepared to use every card and do everything possible. I want you to understand that I am approaching this with that mindset." On temporary imports "For example, there was a time when avian influenza led to a shortage of fresh eggs, and we conducted emergency imports from Brazil. When there's a shortage, we import them as an emergency measure, and this applies to other items as well. But rice has been treated as a sanctuary, and that's how we've approached it. Currently, the situation is such that there is not enough to meet society's demands. The market, wholesalers and various players are holding back (rice) out of fear of shortages, releasing supplies little by little. Until we resolve this situation, prices won't decrease. Considering this, I won't say more, but I am considering all options and will do everything possible. I want you to understand that I am approaching this with that mindset."
CNA
26-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Japan pledges to cut rice price with direct sales to retailers
TOKYO: Japan's new farm minister said on Monday (May 26) the country's embattled government would release reserve rice directly to large retailers in an attempt to bring down prices for consumers after the recent spike. The cost of the staple has soared in recent months, creating a major headache for Japan's unpopular leadership ahead of upper house elections due in July. Farm Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the strategy in recent months of auctioning rice from the government's strategic reserve had failed to reduce prices in stores. Officials have therefore "decided to sell it in voluntary contracts" to "large retailers, who treat 10,000 tonnes of rice annually", Koizumi, the son of former premier Junichiro Koizumi, said. This rice will hit shelves "in early June at the earliest", and the volume of rice the government will release this time - 300,000 tonnes - will be expanded if demand is strong, he added. Koizumi's predecessor, Taku Eto, resigned last week after saying he never buys rice because he gets it free, sparking public fury. Data on Friday showed rice prices rocketed an eye-watering 98.4 per cent year-on-year in April, slightly more than the previous month's increase. Factors behind the rice shortfall include poor harvests caused by hot weather in 2023 and panic-buying prompted by a "megaquake" warning last year.
Associated Press
24-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Emergency reserves, high prices, rationing. How did Japan's rice crisis get this far?
TOKYO (AP) — Rice is essential to Japanese culture, tradition and politics. People take pride in the oval-shaped sticky Japonica grain, which is still a staple even though total consumption has fallen over the decades. But since last summer, prices have soared as supplies have fallen short of demand. The government has long paid farmers to cut back on rice acreage, and change to other crops to keep rice prices relatively high. To cope with shortfalls this year, the government has released rice reserves. But the grain has been slow to reach supermarket shelves. Anger over that was part of the reason the agriculture minister quit this week. Consumers are frustrated and wondering where's the rice? Why did the farm minister resign? Agriculture Minister Taku Eto resigned Wednesday after he raised an uproar by saying he 'never had to buy rice,' because his supporters give it to him as gifts. The remark was seen as utterly out of touch with the realities of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet and to afford rice to eat. Eto apologized, but he was obliged to step down as damage control by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whose minority government faces a big challenge in a crucial national election in July. Eto's successor is former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who has taken part in reforming Japan's powerful agriculture lobby. He's been tasked with investigating and resolving the rice problem. What's happening to rice in Japan? Rice started disappearing from supermarket shelves, and prices surged to twice normal levels since last summer, when a warning about a possible 'megaquake' triggered panic buying. The top 'Koshihikari' brand now sells for nearly 5,000 yen ($35) per 5 kilograms (11 pounds). Rice stocks at Japan Agricultural Cooperatives and other commercial wholesalers have been 400,000 tons short of last year's levels, hitting a record low 1.53 million tons as of June, farm ministry data show. The sense of urgency over shortages has risen now that rice crops have just been planted, with harvests several months away. Why is Japan having rice shortages and soaring prices? Ishiba has pledged to bring the average rice price down to about 3,000 yen ($20) per 5 kilograms (11 pounds). 'We don't know why we haven't been able to push prices lower,' Ishiba said during parliamentary questioning Wednesday when asked how exactly his government will resolve the problem. 'We first will figure out exactly how much rice there is and where it is.' He acknowledged current measures aren't working and blamed 'structural problems' of the government's rice policy. Experts say last summer's panic buying just worsened longstanding problems. A sharp rise in tourism and an increase in dining out have raised demand. Some people started eating more rice after prices of bread and noodles rose when the Russia-Ukraine war pushed wheat prices higher. And the 2023 harvest was relatively poor because of hot weather and pests. Japan's rice supply chain is complicated. Most farmers still sell their rice in the traditional system run by Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, or JA, a powerful interest group with close ties to the governing Liberal Democratic Party. But a growing share is sold through other businesses and online, making it hard to track supplies and prices, said Masayuki Kanamori, an executive of the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations, a JA umbrella organization. The shortage caught JA by surprise, Kanamori said. 'Looking back, the current rice shortage was unforeseeable,' he said. 'We are puzzled.' What's been done so far? The Agriculture Ministry is under fire for delaying releases of emergency rice reserves, which normally are kept for disasters, and for misjudging the demand-supply balance. So far, only 10% of the released rice stocks have reached the market, raising suspicions about what's happening. Koizumi on Thursday announced plans to switch to voluntary government contracts for rice to better control prices and to lift a cap on the next sale. One problem may be a lack of enough milling capacity to turn the stocks of brown rice kept in reserves into the pure white rice that Japanese prefer. But others have accused some wholesalers of hoarding rice to keep prices higher. So far, the government has done little to investigate and resisted releasing reserves, fearing prices would fall, Kazuhito Yamashita, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. Japan could have avoided the problem by allowing more rice to be planted and exporting more if there were surpluses, he said. 'Acreage cutbacks are contrary to food security, a ruinous policy,' Yamashita said. He said that the policy benefits JA by keeping small farmers afloat. Meanwhile, farmers coping with rising costs say prices aren't too high. Ultimately, Japan will need to figure out a long-term strategy since the average age of its farmers is 69, and the farming population has fallen by half over the past two decades to 1.1 million in 2024. What are consumers and retailers doing to cope? Hiromi Akaba, who lives in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, said that she had no choice but to buy rice at the current high prices. But she added: 'If this continues, we will stop eating rice. This could lead to a shift away from rice consumption.' Many stores are limiting customers to one bag of rice per visit. Whatever the cause of the shortages, retailers must put rice on the shelves, so some are switching to imports, which usually aren't popular with finnicky Japanese shoppers. Major supermarket chain operator Aeon Co. plans to sell U.S. grown Japonica 'Calrose' rice at 600 outlets in major cities beginning next month. A 4-kilogram (nearly 9-pound) bag of Calrose will sell for 2,894 yen ($20). Aeon is buying 1.4 tons to tide it over until the autumn harvest, Aeon corporate communications official Hirokazu Satou said. In the past, Aeon has sold Calrose blended with Japanese rice, and this will be the first time that it's selling bags of 100% Calrose, with suggestions like turning it into fried rice. The idea is to keep people eating rice, said Satou, who said he's worried they might just stop.
Japan Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
No more mister rice guy
It was only a matter of time before Taku Eto would be forced to resign as agriculture minister after he made tone-deaf remarks about rice price increases. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party have far too narrow a margin in the legislature and face too tough a battle in the Upper House election slated for this summer to tolerate such gaffes. Eto was replaced by Shinjiro Koizumi in an effort by Ishiba to capitalize on the young politician's star power and smarts to repair the damage and better position the party for the ballot anticipated in July. The move is unlikely to solve the problem of soaring rice prices. That, not cosmetic fixes, will determine the LDP's future in the election campaign. Japanese consumers have been hammered by a spike in rice prices. The average price of a 5-kilogram bag of rice hit ¥4,268 for the week of May 11, the highest level since March 2022 and an increase of ¥54 from the previous week. Prices have been climbing virtually without interruption and are now more than double last year's price, a hardship for every household — and business — given the centrality of the item to the Japanese diet. The pain created by that surge was doubled last week when Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Eto made insensitive comments about the situation to supporters at a rally. Speaking at a fundraising event, Eto said, 'I'm not buying rice. Thanks to my supporters giving me plenty of it, I have so much of it in my house that I could sell it.' He added that 'It may not be intentional, but there are all kinds of things mixed in the rice we receive, like black pebbles and other things.' The suggestion that the product was unclean was construed as offensive to farmers. When the remarks triggered a predictable and understandable backlash, Eto explained that he was trying to make a joke, but conceded that he went 'too far.' Japan deserves better ministers who don't make light of hardship imposed on voters, especially when it is a result of failure to do their job. Initially, Eto kept his position, with Ishiba continuing to support a Cabinet minister with considerable experience and who the prime minister said was needed to deal with a difficult situation. Eto has represented a rural district for over two decades and is considered an expert on agriculture policy, having served as agriculture minister for a year and who headed a Lower House agriculture committee as well as an LDP panel on the sector. Eto, too, said he needed to stay in his post to fix the problem. Opposition mounted, however, forcing Ishiba's hand. Eto reversed course and submitted his resignation Wednesday, although some reports say that he was fired. The prime minister took responsibility for the move, saying it was his fault for picking Eto and then keeping him despite the controversy. To replace him, he turned to Koizumi, the telegenic junior LDP member who has served as environment minister, the leader of the party's youth wing and was head of the LDP's agricultural policy committee when Shinzo Abe was prime minister. He is sharp, a good communicator and a strong supporter of Ishiba even though he lost to him in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race last year. The scandal has united the opposition in the Diet, creating fear that it could also help those parties muster support for a vote of no-confidence in the parliament, turning the anticipated Upper House election into a snap double election that could cost the LDP its position as ruling party. Electoral calculations are top of mind for Ishiba and his party. The LDP lost its majority in Lower House elections last year. Both the prime minister and his party have since struggled in polls, with recent surveys showing support for him ranging from 22% to 31%, the lowest levels since he took office last year. Skyrocketing rice prices are a major source of dissatisfaction, with the government's handling of the problem getting approval in the low teens, although inflation more generally is hurting households as wages can't keep pace with continually rising prices. Koizumi has said that he will tackle the problem with 'urgency,' aiming to 'dispel public anger and distrust' and focus on rice policy. Under Eto, the government ordered the release of additional rice from emergency stockpiles and offered incentives for bidders to sell rice more quickly after acquiring the grain at auction. Those are temporary fixes. Japan's agricultural system requires structural change. Current law protects longtime land holders, which effectively prevents newcomers from buying or using land, which leaves thousands of acres fallow and effectively pushes up prices by creating artificial scarcity. Those restrictions must be loosened. Another possible reform would allow the government to sell rice directly to retailers, cutting out wholesalers that are proving to be a bottleneck in the system. Those changes will require the LDP to challenge longtime supporters from rural areas. It isn't clear if the party and the government have the stomach — or the political capital — to effectuate those types of reform. The LDP has other problems, though. Overshadowed by Eto's remarks were comments by Shoji Nishida, an LDP member of the House of Councilors, who called descriptions on a monument to the "Himeyuri" nursing corps of female students who died in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II 'a revision of history.' Nishida subsequently withdrew the remark and Ishiba then apologized to Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, calling it 'highly regrettable.' Earlier this month, a weekly newsmagazine reported that Ishiba received over ¥30 million from a supporter and did not disclose it in his political fund reports. While he denies any wrongdoing, these charges add to the perception that the LDP is indifferent to such rules. The party was hit last year by a funding scandal and has returned to its old ways: haughty, arrogant and more concerned with itself than the Japanese public. Ishiba, his government and his party have other pressing concerns. The consumption tax debate continues and the relevance and significance of that issue will only grow as households deal with more cost-of-living increases. The Trump tariffs pose a real risk to Japan and a deal is needed, although the Japanese government must not be too eager for an agreement nor compromise too much. That is a fine line to walk and the rice issue will be part of those discussions, as U.S. negotiators are likely to press for more imports of U.S. rice. This is another critical assignment for the new agriculture minister. Resting in the balance is not only the ultimate outcome of those trade talks but the potential future of the LDP government and the Ishiba Cabinet, the fates of the prime minister and Koizumi as well. The Japan Times Editorial Board
South China Morning Post
23-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
‘We are puzzled': how Japan's rice crisis got so bad
Rice is essential to Japanese culture, tradition and politics. People take pride in the oval-shaped sticky Japonica grain, which is still a staple even though total consumption has fallen over the decades. But since last summer, prices have soared as supplies have fallen short of demand. The government has long paid farmers to cut back on rice acreage, and change to other crops to keep rice prices relatively high. To cope with shortfalls this year, the government has released rice reserves. But the grain has been slow to reach supermarket shelves. Anger over that was part of the reason the agriculture minister quit this week. Consumers are frustrated and wondering where's the rice? Why did the farm minister resign? Agriculture Minister Taku Eto resigned on Wednesday after he raised an uproar by saying he 'never had to buy rice' because his supporters give it to him as gifts. The remark was seen as utterly out of touch with the realities of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet and to afford rice to eat. Eto apologised, but he was obliged to step down as damage control by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba , whose minority government faces a big challenge in a crucial national election in July. Eto's successor is former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who has taken part in reforming Japan 's powerful agriculture lobby. He has been tasked with investigating and resolving the rice problem. What's happening to rice in Japan?
