Koizumi to launch 'Rice-gate' investigation
Agriculture Minister to determine the causes of rice shortages and price hikes
The agriculture ministry will survey about 70,000 rice-related businesses across Japan to determine the status of their sales and inventory, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Tuesday.
The survey will be the first conducted under the staple food law since rice distribution was substantially liberalized in 2004. The ministry’s aim is to determine the causes of rice shortages and price hikes.
Rice inventory surveys have been conducted on large rice collectors and wholesalers, but the ministry will expand the range to cover a much wider scope. It will ask the businesses involved to report on their collection of rice for distribution, purchases, sales and inventories as of the end of June.
“Why rice prices have skyrocketed is a matter of national concern. It is extremely important for us at the ministry to find out the reasons, so that we can win the public’s trust in our agricultural policy,” Koizumi said at a press conference after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Businesses that provide take-away services, restaurants and food-related retailers are also planned to be part of the survey. The ministry will conduct hearings to compile the findings at the end of July.
I'm fairly sure that the government will not like the answer if they get the answer I expect. That answer being that the government regulations and licenses mean that no one can respond logically to the rice shortage by doing the obvious thing of... planting more rice.
Thanks to living in ruralish Japan I know some people who grow rice and I asked them back in early spring whether they were going to plant more rice this year because of the shortages. They said they weren't allowed to. In fact sake makers are very concerned about this because some farmers are replacing the sake varieties they usually grow with standard cooking ones so the sake makers won't be able to make as much sake as they want to