Discussion on Agriculture Reform Starts

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba launched a conference by the ministers for agricultural reform, which would discuss better control for production and trade of rice. Ishiba hopes to revise current regulation on production, concerning current shortage and price hike of rice. The lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who are interested in rice farmers are still reluctant to the reform to keep rice price at a certain level. 

Current shortage and rise of rice price was triggered by the heat and drought in the summer 2024. Temporary information of Nankai Trough Earth quake issued by the government on August 8th, 2024, caused urgent purchase of rice for stock by worried consumers, which led rice shortage in retailers.

 

However, the government was not agile in keeping stable supply of rice. Rice had no good harvest in 2023, too. The wholesalers competed to secure rice in 2024 in the fall. With concern for longtime rice shortage, the traders kept 2024 rice in their stockyard, rapidly raising rice price. Although there are some requests to release government’s reserved rice, the Ministry of Agriculture refused it, reasoning that the reserve was not for stabilizing price but for a major natural disaster. Average retail price rose from 28 hundred yen per 5 kilograms in August 2024 to over 40 hundred yen in the spring 2025.

 

Ishiba has been embracing a question why the government needed to keep control of rice production, even facing difficulty of rice supply. “It is necessary to establish stable supply by offering rice with comfortable price and sustainable agricultural production through higher productivity,” said Ishiba in the first meeting of the conference. The traditional policy for controlling rice production brought reduction of rice field. Ishiba hopes not to discourage rice farmers.

 

The specialists on agriculture in the LDP have been worried about current policy of releasing rice reserve, led by Minister of Agriculture, Shinjiro Koizumi. The policy was aimed at stabilizing retail price of rice by injection of reserved rice in the market. LDP policymakers have a concern that the cheap old rice may destroy rice price, affecting the trade and production for certain period. They believe it may have a major impact on voters related to agricultural business in the Upper House election in July.

 

Ishiba meanwhile considers subsidy for farmers, in case rice price declines with deregulation of rice products. He seeks a logical reason for mobilizing budget to support rice farmers. Expanding export is another way to consume rice, when farmers produce more volume of rice. Ishiba hopes to wrap up a plan for the reform by the summer of 2026.

 

Ishiba once grappled with agricultural reform as the Minister of Agriculture in Aso Cabinet between 2008 and 2009. Deregulation of rice production has been a big issue since then. Koizumi now upholds radical solution including import of rice to stabilize rice price. Representing agricultural experts, LDP Secretary General, Hiroshi Moriyama, firmly opposes Koizumi’s idea. It is paid attention how Ishiba is settling argument in the LDP over the reform.

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