Japanese Farm Minister Taki Eto resigns after saying he never had to buy rice
Japan's Farm Minister resigned Wednesday after backlash over publicly stating he has never had to buy rice. Photo by Jiji Press/EPA-EFE
May 21 (UPI) -- Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, or Farms Taki Eto resigned Wednesday after his comments over the price of rice led to a national backlash.
Eto wrote on his website that he submitted his resignation to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who accepted.
"My remarks were extremely inappropriate at a time when the public is suffering greatly from the rising prices of rice, and for that I offer my sincere apologies," Eto.
Eto made the comments Sunday a weekend fundraising event, where during a speech he said he had never bought rice, as he receives so much from his supporters.
"I have enough rice at home I could open up a store and sell it," he said.
He later said the comment was made in jest, but retracted it and admitted that the joke was "too far."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service reported in March that rice "prices have continued to spike and are almost 80% higher in January 2025 than one year ago."
The Farm Ministry responded to the price of rice with the release of 300,000 tons of reserved rice through July. The government had already released 321,000 tons of rice between March and April as rice prices have risen dramatically in 2025.
Ishiba reportedly chastised Eto on Monday, but on Tuesday the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan made an agreement with four other opposition parties to insist Eto resign, and to together submit a no-confidence motion against him.
Representative Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the CDP, said Wednesday that Eto's comments "showed no consideration for the people's lives, who are suffering as rice prices soar, and they rubbed the public the wrong way," and that Eto in his opinion "shows no sense of crisis about the current situation," and is "not fit to be a minister."
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