TOKYO, Dec 28: Japan’s rice policy is at a crossroads as prices of the country’s staple food stay around record highs, squeezing households.
“We’ll change course and boost production,” then Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in August 2025, declaring a change in the government’s rice policy, under which production adjustment had been maintained.
But this was quickly reversed by his successor, Sanae Takaichi, who took office as prime minister in October. Her policy is to keep production in line with demand.
The agriculture minister in her cabinet, Norikazu Suzuki, firmly maintains the position of “not committing to prices.”
He stresses the need to secure demand first, including foreign demand, and then promote production.
If farmers increase production before creating overseas demand, “rice prices will plunge due to an oversupply,” he warns.
— BERNAMA-JIJI PRESS