In Tokyo, Rice Farmers Protest ‘Misguided’ Rules Fueling Shortages

In the United States, the Economic accessibility of eggs pushed a national discussion: to underline anxieties on the economy and role of the government in facing them. In Japan, there is an equivalent: rice.

In the last year, Japan has faced over 200,000 tons deficiency of his basic wheat. Rice prices risen to the stars and supermarkets have been forced to limit the amounts that buyers can buy. The situation has become so terrible that the government had to faucet his emergency rice reserves.

The turning point is that even if Japan deals with deficiencies, the government is paying farmers to limit how much they grow. Politics, taking place for over half a century, consumes billions of dollars per year of public spending.

The farmers exasperated the government regulations protested on Sunday. Under the cherry blossom in a park in the center of Tokyo, more than 4,000 farmers, wearing straw hats and sunbeds, collected with signs that declare “rice is life” and “we laugh but we do not earn to live”. Thirty of them led the tractors through the streets flanked by the skyscraper of the capital.

Japan’s ability to manage its rice problem can have significant implications for the country’s political and economic panorama in the months to come.

Last month, fresh food inflation increased by 19 %, led by an increase of 81 % of the price of rice. Anxieties on cost of food and other points of view weighed on Japanese consumers and the economywhile families are reduced to spending.

The lack of food based on Japan also occur before the elections of the upper chamber – scheduled in July – which will be the first survey at the national level for the Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba. His predecessor resigned Last August, in the face of sad evaluations of public approval that largely caused by the cost of the basic goods.

The shortage of rice derives from a mix of factors, including the record summer heat in 2023 which damaged the harvest and a sway In tourism that led to an increase in rice consumption.

But experts say that the main cause lies in a policy of decades that has systematically reduced the land of sowing for the cultivation of rice. Since the 70s, Japan has subsidized farmers to reduce rice production. The goal, officials say, is to support the income of farmers while maintaining high prices.

Farmers at Sunday protest said politics does not work.

In 2022, the average earnings of rice farmers were approximately $ 23,000, second statistics by the Ministry of Japanese agriculture. That level of income was not enough to attract young farmers, leaving the aging and the reduction quickly of tens of thousands of workers every year.

“If things continue in this way, our farms will disappear. The products we produce will disappear,” said Yoshihide Kanno, 75, a rice breeder from a prefecture north of Tokyo and one of the leaders of the event. “Before this happens, we have to change the misleading agricultural policies of Japan.”

Over the past five decades, Kanno said, about a third of the rice fields in his city have been abandoned. “Why do we have to reduce production when there are deficiencies and fields available?” Signor Kanno asked. “If my son and my grandchildren must continue to cultivate, there must be a longer term perspective.”

Japan has continued to adhere to a policy of limitation of rice production to maintain high prices, in contrast to the United States and the European Union, which have instead adopted systems that allow farmers to produce what they want while subsidizing them for prices relating to prices.

The adoption of a similar policy in Japan would cost the government about $ 2.65 billion per year, compared to the $ 2.32 billion currently spent to encourage farmers to cut production, according to the calculations of Nobethiro Suzuki, professor at the University of Tokyo specialized in agricultural economy.

Although slightly more expensive, a policy focused on the expansion of production would increase the supply of rice, improving the food safety of Japan, while reducing consumer prices, said Suzuki. Allowing farmers to grow without restrictions, while taking income would also make the most attractive industry for the new generations of workers, he said.

There are many theories for which rice production reduction policies have prevailed. Mr. Suzuki suggests that it derives from a wider trend of austerity within the Japanese government, making it difficult to justify also marginal increases in agricultural expenditure. Others suggest That a certain level of pork policy can be a factor.

A spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture stated that “as with anything else”, the government promotes the production of a level of rice that aligns with the projections of the demand.

Historically, debates in Japan on agricultural policy have stimulated political changes. In 2007, a key factor in the brief expansion of the liberal Democratic Party – which held power almost continuously from its foundation in 1955 – was the defense of the opposition party to eliminate policies that reduce the production of rice.

For now, what is clear is that until agricultural policy undergoes a fundamental reform, the problem of rice deficiency persists, said Suzuki, professor at the University of Tokyo. This means that, he said, heading to the summer elections, “the anger of farmers and citizens will continue to climb”.