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Asia Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Asia Times
Soaring rice prices are stirring political trouble in Japan
Japan's agriculture minister, Taku Eto, resigned on May 21 just six months into his term, following a public backlash to his joke that he never buys rice because supporters give it to him for free. Gaffes are by no means uncommon in Japanese politics. Controversial remarks by one former prime minister, Taro Aso, were routinely followed by retractions – and the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) even distributed a gaffe-prevention manual to its members in 2019. But amid a severe rice shortage, which has seen prices surge to 90% higher than they were a year ago, Eto's quip was seen by the Japanese public as more than just an offhand comment. Rice has been a significant part of life in Japan for nearly 3,000 years. This deep connection is reflected in the Japanese word gohan, which means 'cooked rice' but is often used simply to refer to a meal. Rice has also shaped the foundations of Japanese cuisine and farming culture. Such is the importance of rice to Japanese people that a spike in prices in 1918 led to a nationwide wave of protest. The so-called rice riots forced then-Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake,to resign. However, despite the grain's obvious importance, Japanese government policy in recent decades has been focused on tightly controlling and regulating the production of rice. It has endeavoured to keep prices high, partly to reward farmers – who are an important support base for the LDP. This means consumers have paid a premium, contributing to a downward trend in rice consumption alongside other factors such as dietary diversification. By 2022, annual rice consumption in Japan had fallen to 51kg per person, less than half of what it was at its 1962 peak. In this context, the public reaction to Eto's comment was understandable. Japan's current prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, initially seemed prepared to weather the storm, advising Eto to retract his 'problematic' remarks and remain in his post. But with elections approaching in July and Ishiba's approval rating sinking to a record low of 21%, his administration was left with little choice and Eto ultimately resigned. The rice crisis has emerged as one of the defining issues of the upcoming election, which will determine whether Ishiba's ruling coalition can secure a majority in the upper house of parliament. Having already lost its majority in the lower house in October 2024, the government may be set for another crushing defeat at the polls. Japan's rice crisis A few factors have combined over the past year to cause rice prices to increase unexpectedly. Japan's hottest September in 125 years resulted in poor harvests, while government warnings that a major earthquake off the country's Pacific coast could be imminent triggered panic buying. The agriculture ministry also says that a surge in inbound tourism contributed to a sudden rise in rice consumption. However, the rice crisis is not fundamentally the result of climate volatility or increased demand. It is the product of decades of self-defeating agricultural policy that has prioritized institutional interests over national food security. Rice production caps, which were introduced in 1971 to control supply and prices, have never been fully dismantled even as domestic consumption has changed and the farming population decreased. This artificial control of output has left the country ill-prepared for demand surges. Compounding these issues are entrenched protectionist measures designed to shield small-scale rice farmers through high tariffs and rigid distribution systems. These distortions have prioritized institutional stability and political patronage over food security reform, leaving Japan increasingly vulnerable in an era of climate disruption and supply chain instability. Having struggled with low wages for years, many sectors of Japan's population are now grappling with inflation. The government has dug into its emergency rice reserves in an attempt to alleviate the problem, but the grain has been slow to reach supermarket shelves. And some farmers, increasingly frustrated by regulations limiting how much rice they can grow, have even organized demonstrations. Under current conditions, imported rice is becoming an unavoidable fallback. Japan is importing rice from South Korea for the first time in over 25 years, while Japanese tourists are reportedly filling their suitcases with Korean rice – despite deep-seated skepticism toward anything not domestically grown. Political change looming? With rice prices soaring and public discontent mounting, this beloved everyday grain is once again at the center of Japanese politics – just as it was more than a century ago during the 1918 rice riots. Despite the complexities of modern economies, connected to global systems of market exchange, Japanese consumers understand that government policies have played an oversized role in creating the current crisis. It is largely policy that has kept their wages low and failed to rein in inflation. Consumers are also keenly aware that the LDP's rice policy has worked to protect its critical agricultural support base, a situation strongly reflected in Eto's joke. As the government scrambles to get its house in order and put more affordable rice back on the table, a deeper reflection of the past seems advisable. Historical precedents, such as the 1918 riots, suggest that strong public distrust of a government's rice policy results in profound political change. Ming Gao is a research scholar of East Asia studies, Lund University; and Timothy Amos is a senior lecturer in Japanese studies, University of Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Runaway rice prices spell danger for Japan's prime minister as elections loom
Japan's government is battling record-low approval ratings as consumers voice anger at soaring rice prices just weeks before key national elections. Attempts to bring down the price of the Japanese staple have had little effect, prompting calls for a reduction in the consumption (sales) tax to ease the cost-of-living crisis. A new poll by the Kyodo news agency found that consumers blamed the administration of the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, for rising pressure on household finances. Approval ratings for Ishiba's cabinet stand at 27.4%, according to the poll, the lowest since he took office last October and a dip of more than five percentage points in the past month, Kyodo said. Related: Rice crisis: Japan imports grain from South Korea for first time in more than 25 years Ishiba's ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) has so far ruled out a cut in the 10% consumption tax, which promises to be a focal point of upper house elections in July. Ishiba is already under pressure after the LDP and its junior coalition partner lost their lower house majority last autumn. Significant losses in the upper house will only add to calls from opponents inside the party for him to go. Almost three-quarters of respondents said the tax, which is levied on a wide range of goods and services, should be cut 'only for food items', 'for all products' or be abolished altogether, the poll found. More worrying for Ishiba, just over 87% of respondents said government efforts to rein in the price of rice had been 'insufficient', while more than 74% said they did not expect ongoing US-Japan tariff talks – including negotiations on American imports of rice and other foodstuffs – to end favourably to Japan. Earlier this year Ishiba's government took the unusual step of dipping into its vast rice reserves. In March it began releasing stockpiled rice in an attempt to arrest price rises that have been blamed on a combination of factors, including higher demand fuelled in part by the tourism boom, distribution bottlenecks, and suspected hoarding by wholesalers and distributors in anticipation of further shortages. But the move, which is usually reserved for shortages caused by natural disasters and crop failures, did not have the desired effect, with prices of domestic rice falling only marginally. The price of rice sold in supermarkets averaged ¥4,214 ($29) for 5kg during the week to 4 May, according to the agriculture ministry. That is ¥18 cheaper than the all-time high recorded a week earlier, but still around double the price at the same time last year. In response, the government said last week it would double the supply of stockpiled rice, with an additional 300,000 tons due for release in the three months to July, media reports said. That is on top of 300,000 tons that has already been released from emergency stockpiles since March. In addition, some of the rice will bypass wholesalers so it can reach shops more quickly. The mounting rice crisis has forced more Japanese restaurants and consumers to turn to cheaper imports. In April, Japan imported South Korean rice for the first time in a quarter of a century. Last week, the supermarket chain Aeon said it would start selling US-produced Calrose rice from early next month. A 4kg bag will cost about 10% less than Japanese rice.
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Tokyo court orders dissolution of ‘Moonies' Unification Church
A court in Japan has ordered the Unification Church to be dissolved after a government request that was spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe. The church, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the 'Moonies' after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon, is accused of pressuring followers into making life-ruining donations, and blamed for child neglect among its members, although it has denied any wrongdoing. The church said it was considering an immediate appeal of the Tokyo district court's revocation of its legal status, which would take away its tax-exempt privilege and require liquidation of its assets. The order followed a request by Japan's education ministry in 2023 to dissolve the influential South Korea-based sect, citing manipulative fundraising and recruitment tactics that sowed fear among followers and harmed their families. The Japanese branch of the church had criticised the request as a serious threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its followers. The church called the court order regrettable and unjust and said in a statement that the court's decision was based on 'a wrong legal interpretation and absolutely unacceptable'. The investigation into Abe's assassination revealed decades of cosy ties between the church and Japan's governing Liberal Democratic party. The church obtained legal status as a religious organisation in Japan in the 1960s during an anti-communist movement supported by Abe's grandfather, the former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi. The man accused of killing Abe resented the church and blamed it for his family's financial troubles. The church, which officially calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is the first religious group subject to a revocation order under Japan's civil code. Two earlier cases involved criminal charges: the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system; and Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud. Seeking the church's dissolution, the education ministry submitted 5,000 documents and pieces of evidence to the court, based on interviews with more than 170 people. The church used manipulative tactics to make its followers buy expensive goods and donate beyond their means, causing fear, harm and seriously deviating from the law on religious groups, officials and experts said. The cultural affairs agency said the settlements reached in or outside court exceeded 20bn yen (£103m) and involved more than 1,500 people. The church, founded in Seoul in 1954, a year after the end of the Korean war, by Moon, a self-proclaimed Messiah who preached new interpretations of the Bible and conservative, family-oriented value systems. It developed relations with conservative world leaders including US president, Donald Trump, as well as his predecessors Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. The church faced accusations in the 1970s and 1980s of using devious recruitment tactics and brainwashing adherents into turning over huge portions of their salaries to Moon. In Japan, the group has faced lawsuits for offering 'spiritual merchandise' that allegedly caused members to buy expensive art and jewellry or sell their real estate to raise money for the church. The church has acknowledged excessive donations, but says the problem has lessened since the group stepped up compliance in 2009. Experts say Japanese followers are asked to pay for sins committed by their ancestors during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, and that most of the church's worldwide funding comes from Japan.
