Government Buys Back Rice

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced that it would buy back the rice for national reserve, which had been released to stabilize rice trade in 2025. Realizing that the farmers will harvest certain amount of rice this fall, the ministry decided to increase national reserve, meanwhile expecting to stop decline of rice price. It is questioned, however, whether the policy may cause rice price hike in the time of prolonged price inflation. 

In February 2025, the government decided to release national rice reserve to settle price increase of rice. As release of national reserve had been limited for recovery from unexpected natural disaster, the release in 2025 made the first example of release for stabilizing rice trade.

 

The MAFF released 590 thousand tons of rice out of 960 thousand tons of the national reserve. Currently the reserve was reduced to as low as 320 thousand tons. The ministry found that 24 prefectures out of 47 expected to have more rice harvest than the average of past five years this fall. The ministry decided that their buying back would not put a significant negative impact on rice trade.

 

The MAFF plans to buy 210 thousand tons of rice harvested in 2025. It also expects to buy another 210 thousand tons of 2026 rice this fall. 150 thousand tons of reserved rice which was harvested in 2020 will be sold not for people’s diet, but for forage of livestock. Resultingly, the national reservation of rice is expected to resume at the level of 600 thousand tons.

 

While the ministry stresses necessity of certain amount of rice reserve for unexpected bad harvest, it is undeniable that the purpose of buying back rice is to maintain rice price which has been declining with a large amount of supply from national reserve. While average price was over 4,000 yen for five kilograms at supermarket in May 2025, it currently isaround 3,200 yen.

 

Private stock of rice at the end of June 2026 was 2.43 million tons, beyond appropriate line of 1.8 to 2 million tons. Rice market is apparently in a situation of oversupply. The lawmakers in Liberal Democratic party who represents interest of rice farmers have been pressuring the government to take some measures for stopping further decline.

 

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been focusing her policies on dealing with price inflation, as seen in her decision for consumption tax cut. Raising rice price can offset her effort to reduce impact of overall price inflation. That is why the MAFF limited its amount of buying back to 210 thousand tons, which is not reaching the preferable amount of national reserve of 1 million tons.

 

The government has been changing its policy for controlling rice trade. Former prime minister Shigeru Ishiba declaredthat the government would stop its policy to restrict rice products and increase it. However, Takaichi turned Ishiba’s policy down as soon as she took the office. The government has not found proper balance between production and price.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Takaichi Delivers Economic Order

At the starting point of her cabinet, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ordered her ministers to grapple with the issues that would be necessary for implementing her promises in the presidential election of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) or the coalition agreement with Japan Innovation Party (JIP). The first focus of Takaichi looked to be on economic policies.   On the first day of her cabinet, Takaichi sent out a letter to her ministers on October 22 nd . Takaichi demanded in the letter to strengthen Japanese economy by changing people’s concerns on their life or future into hope. It contained three issues to deal with: achieving a strong economy, defending people’s life in local communities and enhancement of diplomacy and defense.   To achieve strong economy, Takaichi proposed introduction of “investment of crisis management” and “responsible and active fiscal policy.” She  explained  investment of crisis management to be preemptive and strategic investment on various...
Read more

Sober Leaders of Japan and China Discuss Mutual Benefit

The Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, had her first meeting with the President of People’s Republic of China (PRC), Xi Jinping, in the backdrop of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit at Gyeongju, South Korea, on October 31 st . Both leaders agreed on maintaining a basic principle of their bilateral relations for years, called “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests.” However, it became a meeting without smile, reflecting their complicated relations these years. At the beginning of the meeting, Xi  told  Takaichi that he was ready for development of China-Japan relations on the right track. Takaichi replied that she hoped to reduce various issues between their countries and increase understandings and cooperation to achieve certain result. Takaichi insisted on developing personal relationship with Xi through dialogues. They  concurred  on building “constructive and stable Japan-China relations.”   Two leaders raised a lot...
Read more

Takaichi and Lee Maintains Shuttle Diplomacy

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi   had a meeting   with the President of Republic of Korea (ROK), Lee Jae Myung, taking opportunity of participating in the summit meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) at Gyeongju, South Korea, on October 30 th . Both leaders reconfirmed maintenance of close bilateral relationship which they succeeded from their predecessors. Built in the trilateral security framework including the United States, both countries do not have a choice to confront each other on such issue as historical dispute. Since inauguration of Takaichi as the prime minister, it has been concerned that she would not be able to manage bilateral relationship with ROK. Takaichi identifies herself as a successor of former Prime Minitser Shinzo Abe, whose administration exacerbated Japan-ROK relationship to the worst level after those countries normalized their relations in 1956. Considering then ROK president, Moon Jae-in, is the political mentor of Lee, it has not been...
Read more