KATHMANDU. Japan will sell more rice from its emergency stockpile through July in an effort to stabilize rising prices, its agriculture minister said Wednesday. The government began auctioning its stockpiles last month after rice prices nearly doubled year-on-year.
This is the first time since the system began in 1995. “The government will sell its reserve rice every month until this summer to stabilize rising rice prices,” Agriculture Minister Taku Ito said. Factors such as a poor harvest due to hot weather in 2023 and panic-buying triggered by last year’s ‘megaquake’ warnings have led to the shortage.
Record numbers of tourists have also been blamed for the surge in consumption. Some businesses are also thought to be hoarding their stocks and waiting for the best time to sell.
The government has so far allocated about 210,000 tonnes of rice. Another 100,000 tonnes will be auctioned the week of April 21. The retail price of five kilograms of rice in the last week of March was 4,206 yen ($29), up 104.5 percent from a year earlier. Japan’s government said last month it aims to increase its rice exports by about eightfold to 350,000 tonnes by 2030.
Rice consumption in Japan has more than halved in the past 60 years as eating habits have changed to include bread, noodles and other energy sources. The new target is part of a long-term national policy to boost foreign rice shipments and make farming more efficient as the country’s aging population shrinks.
Rice also appears to be a factor in US President Donald Trump’s heavy 24 percent tariff on Japanese imports to the United States. The White House has accused Japan of imposing a 700 percent tax on US rice imports. Ito was quoted as calling the claim “absurd.”
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