Japanese Minister Taku Etō has been forced to resign amid the ongoing rice crisis. For those unaware, Japan has been facing a severe rice shortage since 2024, which makes the US egg crisis look minuscule in comparison. Etō delivered a fatal blow to his career by saying that he does not need to worry about the price of rice since he receives it freely through donations.
His comments were taken as a modern-day “Let them eat cake.” “I asked myself whether it is appropriate for me to stay at the helm [of the agriculture ministry] at a critical time for rice prices, and I concluded that it is not,” Etō added, according to the Kyodo news agency. “Once again, I apologise to people for making extremely inappropriate comments as minister when they are struggling with surging rice prices.” He later added that his wife was upset with him for his comments, as they do purchase rice once the donations run dry.
Poor weather conditions in 2023 led to a significant decline in crop yields. The Japanese government has placed high tariffs on imported rice, and Japanese consumers strongly prefer domestic varieties. The government is releasing over 300,000 metric tons of rice from its emergency reserves through July, in addition to the 310,000 tons released since March, but this is not sufficient to meet demand.
Japan reluctantly began importing rice to meet demand. In February alone, Japan imported roughly 40% of what it imported in FY2023. Last week, rice prices hit a record ¥4,268 yen ($29) for 5kg of rice, up from ¥4,214 the previous week. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications alerted the public that rice prices rose 92.1% year-on-year in March, but prices continued to rise. Last month in mid-April, a 5kg bag of rice reached ¥4,220 (about $29–$30), marking the highest price on record and over an 80% YoY increase.
Japan was previously nearly entirely self-sufficient in rice production, but recently bought rice from South Korea for the first time in 25 years, and has also turned to the United States to fill the gap. Panic buying remains prevalent despite the high cost of rice, as it is a staple in the Japanese diet.
The rice crisis controversy is causing the public to lose confidence in the government at large. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Administration approval rating sunk to an all-time low of 27.4%. This scandal is occurring weeks ahead of the July Upper House election. This is yet another blow to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which previously derived mass support from farmers. Over 4,000 farmers took to the streets of Tokyo to demand that the government lift regulations, as the government has been paying farmers to limit their harvest for over 50 years.
The New York Times reported that the average farmer earned $23,000 annually as of 2022, making the industry unattractive to the youth as the number of farmers begins to shrink with an aging population. One farmer told the NYT that a third of rice paddies in his town have been abandoned, and farmers worry that misguided agriculture policies are spurring the decline. The EU and US allow farmers to produce as much as possible, and the government subsidizes any losses, while Japan has taken an opposite approach. The Japanese government believes it would lose $2.65 billion per year if it were to subsidize harvests, but it is already paying farmers $2.32 billion to ration production.
The Liberal Democratic Party has primarily been in power since 1955. The rice crisis is causing a serious decline in confidence as the party is polling at a historic low. Prime Minister Ishiba issued a public apology for his minister’s remarks that led to public outrage, but the damage has been done. The economy is always the driving factor behind political support. The people no longer have trust in the Liberal Democratic Party as they have refused to change policy and seem disconnected from the current cost-of-living crisis.
