2025 POLLS: Despite Reiwa Rice Crisis, Japan fails to deepen policy debate

In the rice crisis, the country experienced a serious shortage of the staple last summer. Rice prices have remained high amid the continued supply shortage, increasing financial burdens on households and at the same time causing a surge in public interest in the nation's rice policy.

For Sunday's election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, political parties have pledged measures to tackle the rising costs of living, such as consumption tax cuts and cash handouts, as well as vowed to increase rice production to resolve the shortage.

"We will increase rice production starting with the 2025 harvest," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said at a ministerial meeting discussing stable rice supply on July 1, two days before the start of the Upper House election's official campaign period.

In a stump speech in Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo and the biggest rice-producing area in the Kanto eastern region, on Monday, agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi said, "We'll turn the agricultural sector into a positive industry where farmers can increase production without worry."

The Reiwa rice crisis came as a nasty shock for many parties, prompting the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito, as well as opposition parties including the Democratic Party for the People, to call for an increase in rice production. Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) has set a target of boosting production volume by 1.5-fold. Japan's Reiwa era started in 2019 with the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito.

Overproduction of rice, however, may cause its prices to tumble.

The Japanese government has adopted a policy of avoiding a surplus in rice and rice price declines by providing subsidies to encourage rice farmers to switch to other crops, based on an estimated downtrend in demand for the staple food in the long term, reflecting the country's falling population.

As both the ruling and opposition parties are pushing for increased production that could lead to a major change in the country's rice policy, a senior agricultural cooperative official said, "We are concerned, so we seek careful and detailed communication," urging the parties to provide a specific timeline and methods to increase production.

To ease farmers' concerns, some opposition parties have proposed income compensation.

The leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan vowed to establish a program to directly pay farmers maintaining their farmland 23,000 yen per 1,000 square meters of farmland.

The DPFP has pledged to pay 15,000 yen per 1,000 square meters of farmland to increase farmers' income, while the Japanese Communist Party plans to set a minimum income guarantee of some 20,000 yen per 60 kilograms of crops.

On the other hand, the LDP is negative about providing subsidies based on the size of farmland or the volume of crops, saying that such initiatives could hinder the efforts to strengthen the agricultural sector's competitiveness.

"We don't plan to pay compensation to farmers just because prices have dropped," Ishiba said. He also said the public may understand the use of taxpayer money for efforts to reduce costs through farmland consolidation or to expand support to farmers operating in mountainous areas where agriculture is challenging.

Still, the LDP says in its election campaign platform that it will help foster and secure farmers regardless of the size and management type of farming businesses, out of consideration for part-time farmers, who are traditionally supporters of the party.

Rice prices have finally started to fall recently, thanks to the release of government-stockpiled rice under discretionary contracts.

Rice farmers' financial conditions will deteriorate, however, if they cannot sell their produce at prices that match the costs.

Koizumi, a member of the LDP, has said that the release of government-stockpiled rice at low prices was to "prevent people from shifting away from domestic rice."

In a stump speech in the northeastern city of Yamagata on Thursday, he tried to rally support for the LDP, saying, "Our party is taking concrete steps toward two simultaneous objectives--ensuring that rice farmers can increase production without worry and that consumers can buy rice with peace of mind."

Koizumi, however, did not specify a price level that would strike a balance between the interests of rice farmers and consumers.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]