May 22, 2025
TOKYO – The problematic remarks by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Taku Eto regarding rice, and the agriculture ministry’s slowness in taking measures to deal with the handling of rice, both reflect how the consumers’ perspective has not been taken into account.
The government must show strong determination to curb rice prices and take action for that purpose.
Speaking at a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party in Saga City on May 18, Eto said: “I’ve never bought rice myself. My supporters give me quite a lot of rice. I have so much rice I could sell it.” He retracted his remarks after receiving lots of criticism from opposition parties and others.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba apologized, saying: “I am extremely sorry to both consumers and producers. I feel acutely responsible as the person who appointed the minister.”
Eto’s remarks are offensive to the feelings of people who are suffering from the soaring rice prices. He utterly lacks self-awareness as the person in charge of handling rice issues. He also has been unable to display leadership to curb rice prices.
Even though the agriculture ministry began releasing its stockpiled rice in March, it has been slow in taking action in response to the current situation in which rice is not sufficiently available on store shelves. Although soaring rice prices may benefit producers, the ministry has given so much consideration to producers that there are no signs it is trying to take a drastic step to solve the issues of distribution from the consumers’ perspective.
Of the 210,000 tons of rice released in March, more than 90% was purchased at auction by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh). However, only about 10% had reached retailers, restaurants and other entities by April 27. The price per five kilograms is over ¥4,000, double the price of the previous year.
The ministry has therefore revised the rules for bidding on stockpiled rice. It will establish a priority quota of 60,000 tons out of the 100,000 tons to be released each month from May through July. Distributors using the priority quota will be required to make a specific plan to sell the rice to retailers within one month.
The ministry needs to step up monitoring to ensure that these sales plans are steadily implemented and to encourage smooth distribution.
The deadline for the government to buy back stockpiled rice will also be extended from within one year to within five years in principle. This is because wholesalers and others are believed to be hoarding inventory in the belief that high prices will not be resolved due to the tight supply-demand conditions caused by the buybacks.
The ministry also released a cost analysis of distribution after the stockpiled rice was sold. The added costs and profits at the wholesaler stage were up to over three times higher than those for the 2022 rice crop. Wholesalers should be urged to set their costs at an appropriate level.
If the current review measures do not produce sufficient results, the ministry may need to consider more drastic measures, such as emergency imports of rice.
If the government does not take a strong stance, the uncertainty of a rice shortage will not be resolved and it will remain difficult to control prices.