An off-the-cuff remark about never paying for rice has cost Japan’s agriculture minister his job, as pressure mounts on the government to solve the nation’s rice crisis.
Taku Eto resigned on Wednesday, telling reporters that he had concluded he was “not the right person for this role” after sparking a public backlash by saying that he had “so much rice at home that (he) could sell it.”
The cost of rice – Japan’s prime staple food – has become a major political issue, with prices surging to record highs this year and the government taking the rare steps of releasing emergency reserves and importing foreign rice.
Eto’s gaffe could not have come at a worse time for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government, which was already suffering from low approval ratings due to spiraling cost of living, weeks ahead of an election.
“I have never bought rice myself. Frankly, my supporters give me quite a lot of rice. I have so much rice at home that I could sell it,” Eto said in a speech over the weekend, drawing the ire of the public.
He later clarified he did buy his own rice and said he “deeply regretted” his comments.
“I made an extremely inappropriate remark as the minister responsible. For that, I apologize once again to the people of Japan,” Eto said Wednesday after tendering his resignation.
He added that he “fully recognized” the hardship people are facing due to soaring rice prices.
A major threat
Frustrations over the rising cost of living in Japan is shaping up to be a major threat for Prime Minister Ishiba and his Liberal Democratic Party as the country heads to the polls for upper house elections in July.
The latest approval ratings for Ishiba’s cabinet slipped to 27.4%, a record low, according to a poll by Japanese news agency Kyodo released on Sunday. Almost one in nine of the households surveyed said the government’s efforts to rein in rice prices had been insufficient.
Ishiba’s party, which has ruled Japan for almost all of its post-war history, suffered a crushing defeat in last year’s lower house election, but he held on to power by seeking support from minor parties.
Further defeat in the coming elections could threaten his coalition’s rule and spark calls for a new leader.
Rice price stubbornly high
Despite the government’s attempts to bring them down, rice prices in Japan have remained stubbornly high – almost twice what they were a year ago.
The average retail price of rice rose to 4,268 yen ($29.4 US) per five kilograms in the second week of May, reversing a brief decline in 18 weeks recorded in the previous month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Earlier this year, it took the rare step of putting hundreds of thousands of tons of rice from its emergency reserves up for auction, in a bid to drive down prices. Multiple auctions have since been scheduled until July, with hundreds of thousands of tons of rice being released.
Japan, which takes deep pride in its homegrown rice, has also scaled up imports of rice from overseas, mainly from the US. In April, it also imported South Korean rice for the first time since 1999.
Dealing with the rice crisis is now the job of Shinjiro Koizumi, a former environment minister and son of a former Japanese Prime Minister, who Ishiba has appointed to head the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
“I have instructed Mr. Koizumi to make strong efforts to supply rice to consumers at a stable price, especially in light of the current high rice prices,” Ishiba said.