Japan’s ruling camp rushes to achieve results in rice prices

The government and ruling parties are rushing to tackle soaring rice prices. With the success or failure of their efforts expected to directly impact the outcome of the House of Councillors election this summer, they are focusing on achieving results quickly, with their work centered on new Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.

Meanwhile, opposition parties insist the government should fundamentally reform its agricultural policies. Debate over policies that can affect rice farming is heating up.

“I want to achieve results that make the public feel, ‘Politicians have finally started taking action.’ So, I have taken action at top speed since the first day [I became agriculture minister],” Koizumi said during a speech in Sapporo on Saturday.

Koizumi met with rice wholesalers and rice farmers in Hokkaido to seek their understanding about his plan to sell governmental stockpiled rice under discretionary contracts. The shift to discretionary contracts was announced by Koizumi immediately after he attended a press conference held to announce his appointment as minister on Wednesday.

On Friday, he declared a goal of lowering retail prices for stockpiled rice to ¥2,000 for 5 kilograms.

Koizumi has appeared on TV news programs one after another and made inspection tours to demonstrate his new policy stance, working to turn the political situation around.

It is still not clear whether retail rice prices can be lowered, but Koizumi’s frequent public appearances have drawn notice from opposition parties as well. A mid-ranked lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said, “The ouster of the [former] agriculture minister is helping the Liberal Democratic Party.”

An LDP upper house lawmaker whose seat will be contested in the upcoming election expressed hope, saying, “If Mr. Koizumi’s bulldozing power can lower [rice] prices, the headwinds against the government and the LDP may ease.”

Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito also visited a farming household in Satte, Saitama Prefecture, on Saturday and praised Koizumi’s efforts. He told reporters, “I admire his quick action. People are watching to see whether the measures taken by the administration of the LDP and Komeito will show results before the upper house election.”

Koizumi voiced his determination to lower rice prices, saying that retail prices “are absolutely too high now.”

But some ruling party lawmakers worry that if rice prices drop too low, it may negatively impact farming households’ finances.

LDP Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama said Saturday in a speech in Miyazaki, “It’s important for rice grains to be traded at prices that allow sustained production. It’s wrong to think that the lower rice prices are, the better everything will be.”

Meanwhile, the CDPJ and the Democratic Party for the People insist that a system to pay subsidies directly to rice farmers should be created, to support stable rice supplies and help secure future rice producers.

“We also have to present measures to prevent producers from discontinuing their rice production business,” CDPJ leader Yoshihiko Noda told reporters in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, on Saturday.

DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki told reporters in Sapporo: “It seems that [the government and ruling parties] are only insisting that prices should be lowered, although there is no direct subsidy payment system. As a policy, this stance is a little biased.”

Japan Innovation Party co-leader Seiji Maehara said Saturday about the stockpiled rice, “Public bidding should be the method used,” casting doubt on the government’s choice to use discretionary contracts.

Debates about the issue will likely continue during the final phase of the current Diet session between the ruling and opposition camps.

Tags: prices, rice, Japan