why is japan experiencing a rice shortage?
2024-09-07
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since july this year, some parts of japan have been experiencing a "rice shortage". according to japanese media reports, as of this week, the rice supply in tokyo and nearby areas is still tight, and 80% of retail stores in osaka are out of rice. the "rice shortage" has caused a sharp rise in rice prices. according to data released by the japanese government on august 25, the country's rice prices in july rose 17.2% from the same period last year, the largest increase in 20 years.
food shortage
the japanese government claimed that "the reason for the shortage of rice is that it has been eaten up by the surge in foreign tourists", which is ridiculous. first of all, tourists who mainly eat rice come from asian countries such as china and south korea, and the proportion is not high; secondly, according to data from the japanese ministry of agriculture and forestry, the rice consumed by tourists this year only accounts for about 0.7% of the annual production. this set of rhetoric is completely untenable and is just the government's "method of diverting contradictions."
the more practical reason is that japan is currently in the season of "new and old grains" switching. generally, new rice is available in september, but the earthquake, typhoon and other natural disasters in august directly led to the failure of the "new and old grains" handover. farmland was severely damaged, and domestic residents overstocked grain.
another hidden factor is the impact of the russian-ukrainian war. it is said that the raw materials originally used to produce fertilizers were diverted to the explosives production line, causing fertilizer prices to soar and production to fall. grain farmers would rather switch to growing fruits that can be sold at a high price, resulting in a decrease in rice planting area and production.
response
the common people have no rice to eat. even the screenwriters of third-rate historical dramas know that the next step should be to open the warehouses and release the grain. since august 26, the governor of osaka prefecture has repeatedly called for the release of government reserve rice to alleviate the rice shortage and stabilize rice prices, but his proposals have been repeatedly rejected by the japanese central government. the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries and the chief cabinet secretary of japan responded successively that the current rice shortage is caused by citizens' over-buying, and the new rice will soon be available on the market, which will soon alleviate the rice shortage.
there is a view that the so-called 1.56 million tons of grain reserves in the japanese treasury may just be a bunch of book data. the reason why the japanese government does not open the warehouse to help the people is not that it is unwilling, but that it cannot. of course, you can say that this is a conspiracy theory, but combined with toshiba's financial fraud and kawasaki heavy industries' data fraud, the view that the treasury is falsified is probably not groundless.
another view is that the japanese government is unwilling to release its grain reserves for strategic purposes. at the end of july, the foreign and defense ministers of the united states and japan met and agreed to re-arrange the us military presence in japan; at the end of august, nearly 70 ships from the united states, britain, france, germany and other countries gathered in japan. japan is pushing itself to the center of international conflict, and the government is keeping its grain reserves as strategic war materials, so it naturally dare not release them to the public.
gaming
the author believes that the root cause of the rice shortage in japan and the government's reluctance to use its grain reserves lies in the game between the government and capital. it is reported that japanese grain traders have previously hoarded some high-priced rice and are taking advantage of the current rice shortage to resell it at a high price. the government's tacit approval of this behavior may be due to public relations lobbying or even donation transactions by grain traders.
here we have to introduce the japanese agricultural association behind the grain traders. some people describe it as controlling the lifeline of japan's primary industry to some extent. on the positive side, the japanese agricultural association provides farmers with one-stop services from planting to selling agricultural products, which promotes the advancement of agricultural technology in japan; on the other hand, the long-term monopoly has also made the japanese agricultural association gradually become a special interest group, which has led to high domestic agricultural product prices and excessive agricultural product tariff barriers, severely restricting japan's agriculture from participating in economic globalization.
take rice as an example. japan has set an import tariff of 778% on rice. it also has quotas, price limits and quantity limits. it is said that the number of parliamentary seats influenced by the japanese agricultural cooperatives accounts for 30% of the parliamentary elections, so the japanese government dare not offend them easily. during this round of "rice shortage", the japanese government was unwilling to release its rice reserves and did not dare to import from abroad to solve the urgent problem. it is estimated that it was also under pressure from the agricultural cooperatives.
