In the US, affordable egg prices have prompted national debate. It highlights economic anxiety and the role of government in dealing with them. In Japan, there is an equivalent: rice.
Over the past year, Japan has tackled a shortage of over 200,000 tons of staple food. Rice prices are rising sharply, forcing supermarkets to limit how much shoppers can buy. The situation became very disastrous and the government had to take advantage of emergency rice reserves.
The twist is that despite Japan's dealing with shortages, the government pays farmers to limit how much they grow. This policy has been in place for over half a century, spending billions of dollars a year on public spending.
Farmers were angry at the government's restrictions that protested on Sunday. Under the cherry blossoms in a park in central Tokyo, over 4,000 farmers wear straw hats and sun hats, gathering with signs declaring, “Rice is life” and “We can't make a living.” Of these, 30 people drove tractors through the streets lined with skyscrapers in the capital.
Japan's ability to manage the issues of rice could have a major impact on the country's political and economic landscape in the coming months.
Last month, fresh food expansion skyrocketed by 19%, leading to a rise in rice prices by 81%. Anxieties about the costs of food and other staple foods have placed emphasis on Japanese consumers and the economy as households cut their spending.
Japan's lack of staple food also has occurred before the expected Senate election in July. His predecessor resigned last August and faced a disastrous public approval rate that was largely caused by the costs of basic goods.
The rice shortage comes from a mix of factors, including the record summer heat of 2023, which damaged the harvest, and the surge in tourism that led to increased rice consumption.
But experts say the underlying cause is decades-old policy that systematically reduced arable land for rice growth. Since the 1970s, Japan has been subsidized by farmers to reduce rice production. Authorities say the goal is to support farmers' income by maintaining high prices.
Farmers in the protest on Sunday said the policy was not working.
According to statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, in 2022, the average revenue of rice farmers was around $23,000. That level of income is not enough to attract young farmers, and the industry is rapidly aging and shrinking by tens of thousands of workers each year.
“When things continue like this, our farms disappear. The products we produce disappear,” said 75-year-old Yoshihide Kanno, a rice farmer in a prefecture in northern Tokyo and one of the protest leaders. “We need to change Japan's misguided agricultural policies before that happens.”
Over the past 50 years, Kanno said rice cultivation in about a third of his town has been abandoned. “Why should we reduce production when there are shortages and areas available?” Kanno asked. “I need a long-term outlook for my son and grandchild to continue farming.”
Japan continues to adhere to policies that restrict rice production in order to keep prices high, as opposed to the US and the European Union. Instead, farmers employ systems that allow them to produce as much as they want, while providing subsidies for price-related losses.
According to calculations by Nobuhiro Suzuki, a professor at the University of Tokyo who specializes in agricultural economics, adopting a similar policy in Japan would cost the government about $2.65 billion a year, compared to what is currently spent encouraging farmers to cut production.
Though slightly more expensive, the policy focused on expanding production will increase rice supply, increase Japan's food security and lower consumer prices, Suzuki said. By allowing farmers to grow without restrictions, he said, it can make the industry more attractive than a new generation of workers, while supporting their income.
There are many reasons why rice production reduction policies were prioritized, and there are many theories. Suzuki suggests that it is due to a wider austerity trend within the Japanese government, making it difficult to justify even a small increase in agricultural expenditure. Others suggest that certain levels of pig barrel politics could be a factor.
A spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture said the government is promoting production of rice levels that are consistent with demand forecasts “as with others.”
Historically, debates in Japan regarding agricultural policy have spurred political change. In 2007, a key factor in the short expulsion of the Liberal Democrats was the opposition's defense of abolishing policies that reduced rice production, which had been in power almost continuously since its founding in 1955.
What's clear for now is that the problem of rice shortage will continue until agricultural policy undergoes basic reforms, said Suzuki, a professor at the University of Tokyo. So, heading towards the summer elections, he said, “the anger of farmers and citizens will continue to increase.”
