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From Ridicule to Redemption: Rice Crisis Returns Koizumi to the Spotlight
- On June 5, 2025, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba held his first cabinet meeting to address Japan's rising rice prices and supply issues.
- The meeting followed a year of rice prices doubling amid a poor 2023 harvest and record low stockpiles of 1.53 million tons as of early June.
- Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, appointed in mid-May, announced ongoing release of 610,000 tons from emergency stockpiles and hinted at possible emergency imports to stabilize prices.
- Koizumi stated that the government would not restrict the amount of rice released if needed, and mentioned that importing rice would mark the first occasion since the early 1990s, when it was brought in due to a poor domestic harvest, as an emergency response.
- The government aims to ease supply shortages and lower prices, but experts highlight structural policy issues and a shrinking farming population that require long-term reforms.
20 Articles
20 Articles
In response to a request from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries regarding the release of government stockpiled rice, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has quickly set up a desk to support logistics. Public interest is high, and the ministry is working together to prevent bottlenecks in transportation. Meanwhile, the warehouse industry, which has been storing the stockpiled rice, has begun to cry out in…
Japan Agriculture Minister Says Govt Mulling Importing Rice; Ishiba Says Have to Take Necessary Measures to ‘Steadily Supply Rice’
The government is considering importing rice as an emergency measure in case its stockpiled rice runs out, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a press conference after a Cabinet meeting on Friday.
The shortage of rice hit Japan's consumers hard: price explosion, hamster purchases and political turbulence around the staple food put pressure on the government.
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