Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Taku Eto yesterday resigned after remarks he made about rice triggered a firestorm of criticism from voters and lawmakers, posing a fresh challenge to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s embattled government.
Eto has been in hot water since media reports exposed comments he made at a weekend political fundraising party that he had “never had to buy rice” thanks to gifts from supporters.
The comment led to a frenzy of criticism from voters, already angry about the historically high price of the staple food due to a poor harvest and elevated demand from a boom in tourism.
Photo: Kyodo via Reuters
“I made an extremely inappropriate remark at a time when citizens are suffering from soaring rice prices,” Eto told reporters after handing in his resignation at the prime minister’s office.
Ishiba appointed former minister of the environment Shinjiro Koizumi as his replacement, saying he was counting on his reform-minded stance to produce results.
“Mr Koizumi is someone who has experience, insights, and passion for reforms on agriculture and fisheries,” Ishiba said.
The doubling of rice prices from last year has become a top concern for Japanese voters, long accustomed to years of deflation and suffering from stubbornly low inflation-adjusted wages.
The government has been releasing rice since March from its emergency stockpile to tame prices, but that has had little effect.
Data on Monday showed supermarket rice prices rising again in the week through May 11, to ￥4,268 (US$29.71) for a 5kg bag, after falling for the first time in 18 weeks. The high prices have increasingly led to retailers and consumers seeking out cheaper, foreign rice.
Ishiba said prices should be between ￥3,000 and ￥3,999, and for that to happen, it was necessary to reverse the government’s policy for the past half-century of encouraging reduced production to keep prices steady.
“What’s on everyone’s mind right now are the soaring rice prices and anxiety over whether there’s enough of it in the market, and I want to dispel these concerns,” said Koizumi, whose father, Junichiro Koizumi, pushed through sweeping reforms and deregulation as prime minister in the 2000s.
The agriculture ministry “covers a wide range of responsibilities, but in my mind, what I need to focus on right now is simply rice. I’m going into this job with the mindset that I am essentially the ‘minister in charge of rice,’” he said.
Eto’s departure threatens Ishiba’s already shaky grip on power ahead of key upper house elections in July. His Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the more powerful lower house in a snap election Ishiba called in October last year shortly after taking office.
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