Tokyo (AFP) – The Japanese government began a rare auction on Monday of its emergency rice stockpiles in a bid to help drive down the surging price of the national staple.
Rice shortages driven by factors from poor harvests caused by hot weather to panic-buying over a “megaquake” warning last summer have caused prices to nearly double over a year.
Exacerbating the problem, some businesses are also thought to be keeping their inventories and waiting for the most opportune time to sell.
Japan stores about a million tons of rice for emergencies.
The country has previously tapped into these reserves during disasters, but this is the first time since the stockpile was built in 1995 that supply chain problems are behind the move.
The agriculture ministry is expected to select successful bidders for 150,000 tons of rice by Wednesday – with the auctioned grain expected to hit store shelves by the end of March.
The ministry says it plans to release another 60,000 tons if necessary.
“This is a highly irregular situation,” agriculture minister Taku Eto told parliament on Monday.
“By sorting out the clogged parts of the distribution network, we hope to relieve the hardship experienced by consumers.”
Experts say several factors have contributed to the crisis.
Among them is a tourism boom and shortages caused by record heatwaves in recent years, as Japan, like other countries, experiences the effects of human-driven climate change.
In August last year, shelves in some stores emptied after the government warned of a possible “megaquake”, along with one of the fiercest typhoons in decades and the annual Obon holiday.
When Australia starts releasing it’s strategic Vegemite reserve, that’s when you know it’s gonna be real bad.
All prices have been rising with the combination of corona and Russia (where we get a lot of petrochem from, especially after the reactors were shuttered in response to the tsunami 14 years ago today). Wages sank for the first time in 3 months. A fair amount of belt-tightening is going on. The rice is in part due to bad weather -> bad harvests. There is also some protectionism involved, but I’m certainly no expert on that (I am a small-scale farmer who started last year, but don’t do rice). Japanese also prefer short-grain rice, so I don’t think we would see other varieties flying off the shelves unless things get really desperate.
A lot are worried that we will see consumption tax increase again (it was either 3 or 5% when I first came and went to 8% to now 10%), perhaps even to 20%. Japan is in for a rough road if things don’t change.
emergency rice reserves
Hopefully people in USA learn how to eat petrol.
We grow a lot of food in Louisiana. Thankfully.
Has emergency rice supplies in case of a megaquake.
People buy up rice because of megaquake.
No more rice on market
Have to sell megaquake rice.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240823/p2a/00m/0bu/024000c
From just last year, this article says it’s not tourism, climate change, etc., but a domestic policy of limiting rice production to keep prices from crashing. It says if all of Japan’s usable land was used, Japan would produce more rice than India and export a bunch.
Which would crush domestic prices and put most small domestic rice farmers out of business, accelerating rural abandonment.
Under capitalism feeding people is literally bankruptcy.
Yeah, when production is limited and there’s a bad harvest, we get this mess. All the usable land being used would require people willing and able to work it which is a whole other kettle of fish.
This has been happening since at least the potato genocide in Ireland.
It’s how capitalism/colonialism has always worked: steal land, convert to cash crops, watch locals die, $$$…
My partner is from Southeast Asia and bought up on rice the day before the tariffs went into effect.
This is how the great food war starts.
Probably not, at least not specifically Japan right now. Depending upon government policy and weather, we may get there, though.
Indeed, the capitalist countries will likely turn on themselves before the rest of the world is impacted. Sadly, the way the US government will try to fix their shortages will likely be to invade the countries that have their shit together.
Huh… I knew their economy was weak but had no idea about the agri side
We had a really bad harvest year, among some other reasons, so yields were way down. An aging-out population doesn’t help. Rice farming, even when a lot is mechanized, is hard work. Most people don’t want to become farmers as their main job, and it’s not viable for most as a second job because the other jobs that would give enough time to do that are either in the big cities or super rare. I can only do it because I have a fully remote position with flex+core time. Even then, I don’t see myself ever getting into rice due to the difficulties of doing it by hand and the capital required for mechanization.
Wow. OK yea that is a major issue. Thank you for the explanation.
