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
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