Japanese farm minister resigns following gaffe over rice
TOKYO - Japanese farm minister Taku Eto resigned on Wednesday after remarks he made about rice triggered a firestorm of criticism from voters and lawmakers, posing a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's embattled government.
Eto has been in hot water since media reports exposed comments he made at a weekend political fundraising party that he had "never had to buy rice" thanks to gifts from supporters.
The comment led to a frenzy of criticism from voters, already angry about the historically high price of the staple food due to a poor harvest and elevated demand from a boom in tourism.
"I made an extremely inappropriate remark at a time when citizens are suffering from soaring rice prices," Eto told reporters after handing in his resignation at the prime minister's office.
Ishiba appointed former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi as his replacement at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), saying he was counting on his reform-minded stance to produce results.
"Mr Koizumi is someone who has experience, insights, and passion for reforms on agriculture and fisheries," Ishiba said.
The doubling of rice prices from last year has become a top concern for Japanese voters, long accustomed to years of deflation and suffering from stubbornly low inflation-adjusted wages.
The government has been releasing rice since March from its emergency stockpile to tame prices, but that has had little impact.
Data on Monday showed supermarket rice prices rising again in the week through May 11, to 4,268 yen ($29.73) for a 5 kg bag, after falling for the first time in 18 weeks. The high prices have increasingly led to retailers and consumers seeking out cheaper, foreign rice.
Ishiba said prices should be between 3,000 yen and 3,999 yen, and that for that to happen, it was necessary to reverse the government's policy for the last half-century of encouraging reduced production to keep prices steady.
'Minister of Rice'
"What's on everyone's mind right now are the soaring rice prices and anxiety over whether there's enough of it in the market, and I want to dispel these concerns," said Koizumi, whose father Junichiro pushed through sweeping reforms and deregulation as prime minister in the 2000s.
"(MAFF) covers a wide range of responsibilities but in my mind, what I need to focus on right now is simply rice. I'm going into this job with the mindset that I am essentially the 'minister in charge of rice'," he said.
Koizumi, who previously served as the head of the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) agriculture and forestry division, said there would be no sacred cows in his efforts to lower rice prices, and that a strong political will would be needed to achieve those goals.
Traditionally, rice farmers are a strong support base for the long-governing LDP, and Japan protects the rice market with hefty levies beyond the tariff-free "minimum access" quota agreed under World Trade Organization rules.
Eto's departure threatens Ishiba's already-shaky grip on power ahead of key upper house elections in July. His LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the more powerful lower house in a snap election Ishiba called in October shortly after taking office.
Many users on social media expressed disdain over the latest saga.
"Reaffirmed the need for the LDP to be completely annihilated," one user wrote on X, sharing their belief that Koizumi would do no better than Eto.
Eto's resignation is the first from Ishiba's cabinet not involving ministers who lost their seats in elections.
"Minister Eto's resignation was inevitable from the moment the gaffe occurred," said Hiroshi Shiratori, a political science professor at Hosei University in Tokyo. "The decision to replace him only after five opposition parties had planned their no-confidence motion was too slow, exposing Prime Minister Ishiba's lack of leadership."
A Kyodo News opinion poll on Sunday showed support for Ishiba at a record low 27.4%, with nearly nine out of 10 voters dissatisfied with the government's response to soaring rice prices. — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
GMA Network
6 hours ago
- GMA Network
Japan's ispace fails again: Resilience lander crashes on moon
A model of the lunar lander "Resilience", operated by 'ispace', is displayed at a venue where employees of 'ispace' monitored its attempted landing on the Moon, in Tokyo, Japan, June 6, 2025. REUTERS/ Manami Yamada TOKYO, Japan - Japanese company ispace 9348.T said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the lunar surface during its touchdown attempt on Friday, marking another failure two years after an unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines LUNR.O and Firefly Aerospace in making successful commercial moon landings amid a global race that includes state-run lunar missions from China and India. Although the failure means another multi-year pause in Japan's commercial access to the moon, the country remains committed to the U.S.-led Artemis program and a wide range of Japanese companies are studying lunar exploration as a business frontier. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, had problems measuring its distance to the surface and could not slow its descent fast enough, the company said, adding it has not been able to communicate with Resilience after a likely hard landing. "Truly diverse scenarios were possible, including issues with the propulsion system, software or hardware, especially with sensors," ispace Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie told a press conference. A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent when flight data was lost less than two minutes before the scheduled touchdown time during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo. Shares of ispace were untraded, overwhelmed by sell orders, and looked set to close at the daily limit-low, which would mark a 29% fall. As of the close of Thursday, ispace had a market capitalisation of more than 110 billion yen ($766 million). "We're not facing any immediate financial deterioration or distress because of the event," CFO Jumpei Nozaki said in the press conference, citing recurring investor support. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design was mostly unchanged in Resilience. $16 Million payload Resilience was carrying a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads worth a total of $16 million, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900 km (560 miles) from the moon's north pole. If the landing had been successful, the 2.3-metre-high lander and the rover would have begun 14 days of planned exploration activities, including capturing of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with U.S. space agency NASA. Resilience in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March. Intuitive Machines, which last year marked the world's first commercial lunar touchdown, also landed its second Athena lander in March, although in a toppled position just as with its first mission. Japan last year became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander. The government last year signed an agreement with NASA to include Japanese astronauts in Artemis lunar missions and has supported private companies' research projects for future lunar development, assuming ispace's transportation capabilities. "Expectations for ispace have not faded," Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in an X post. Although ispace will likely remain Japan's most advanced lunar transportation company, some Japanese firms may start to consider transport options from foreign entities to test their lunar exploration visions, said Ritsumeikan University professor Kazuto Saiki, who was involved in the SLIM mission. For its third mission in 2027, ispace's U.S. unit is building a bigger lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services for the Artemis program. The company projects six more missions in the U.S. and Japan through 2029. "NASA increasingly needs private companies to improve cost efficiency for key missions with limited budgets," ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts. "To meet NASA's expectations, we'll support our U.S. subsidiary to keep up with development and play a role." ($1 = 143.5600 yen) — Reuters
GMA Network
8 hours ago
- GMA Network
Japan diet OKs defense pact with PH —envoy
Japan's Diet on Friday ratified a key defense pact allowing the deployment of Japanese forces for joint drills with Filipino troops in the Philippines, Manila's top envoy to Tokyo said. "We welcome today's approval of the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between the Philippines and Japan by the House of Councillors, which completes the approval process in the Japanese Diet," Philippine Ambassador Mylene Garcia-Albano said in a statement sent to GMA News Online. The RAA, which similarly allows Filipino soldiers to enter Japan for joint combat drills, was approved by the Philippine Senate on December 2024 Garcia-Albano said the RAA is "a testament to the trust and enduring friendship between the Philippines and Japan." "It will enhance our ability to work closely together in promoting a rules-based order governed by international law," she said. Japan and the Philippines are establishing closer security ties in reaction to China's aggressive territorial assertions. China and Japan are also locked in a long-running territorial dispute over the Senkaku islands, which the Chinese call Diaoyu, in the East Sea. A vital trading and shipping lane, the South China Sea, dotted with rocks, shoals, and reefs where rich oil and mineral deposits were found, are claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan. Manila largely won a landmark case against China's massive claim in the South China Sea before an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, but Beijing does not recognize the ruling. Similar to Manila's Visiting Forces Agreement with its treaty ally, the United States, the RAA defense pact with the Philippines is the first to be signed by Japan in Asia. Japan signed similar agreements with Australia and the United Kingdom. "We thank the Government and people of Japan for their steadfast support and continued collaboration," Garcia-Albano said. "We look forward to the full implementation of this agreement and to building an even more resilient and forward-looking partnership in the years ahead." —AOL, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
4 days ago
- GMA Network
Taiwan says China deployed 2 aircraft carrier groups, dozens of ships
TAIPEI, Taiwan - China deployed two aircraft carrier groups and dozens of ships in waters north and south of Taiwan last month, a Taiwanese security official said Monday, as Beijing keeps up military pressure on the self-ruled island. Up to 70 Chinese ships, including navy vessels, were monitored from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea from May 1-27, a security official said on the condition of anonymity. Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and warships around Taiwan in recent years as it pressures Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty over the island. China has refused to rule out using force to bring Taiwan under its control, leaving the island to face the constant threat of invasion. "Its military actions and grey-zone activities have included large-scale deployments across the entire island chain, involving comprehensive maximum pressure," the security official said in remarks released Monday. "On average, there have been between 50 to 70 naval vessels and government ships as well as hundreds of sorties by various military aircraft continuously conducting harassment operations." Some of the ships passed through the Miyako Strait to the Western Pacific Ocean for "long-distance training, including combined air-sea exercises", the official said. Another 30 Chinese vessels with no name, documentation or port of registry were detected near Taiwan's Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait on May 19 and had been "deliberately sent to harass", the official said. And a total of 75 Chinese aircraft were involved in three "combat readiness patrols" near the island during the month, Taiwan's defense ministry figures show. Asia-Pacific's so-called first island chain links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines, while the Yellow Sea is west of South Korea -- all partners of the United States and critical to its influence in the region. 'More provocative' The Taiwanese security official said China's activities in May were "more provocative than previously observed". In one incident, Tokyo and Beijing exchanged diplomatic protests each accusing the other of "violating" national airspace, after a Chinese helicopter and coast guard vessels faced off with a Japanese aircraft around disputed islands. The Chinese actions were a demonstration of "military expansion" and were aimed at controlling the "entire island chain and improving their capabilities", the official said. China's deployment coincided with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's speech on May 20 marking his first year in office and came ahead of an annual security forum in Singapore at the weekend. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told the Shangri-La Dialogue that China was "credibly preparing" to use military force to upend the balance of power in Asia. Beijing, which did not send its Defence Minister Dong Jun to the summit, warned Washington "should not play with fire". "It felt like they were in a state where they could announce something at any moment, trying to seize on some opportunity or excuse to act," the Taiwanese official said of the Chinese. China has carried out several large-scale military drills around Taiwan since Lai took office. — Agence France-Presse
