By Chang-Ran Kim and Yoshifumi Takemoto
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese farm minister Taku Eto resigned on Wednesday after remarks he made about rice triggered a firestorm of criticism from voters and lawmakers, posing a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s embattled government.
Eto has been in hot water since media reports exposed comments he made at a weekend political fundraising party that he had “never had to buy rice” thanks to gifts from supporters.
The comment led to a frenzy of criticism from voters, already angry about the historically high price of the staple food due to a poor harvest and elevated demand from a boom in tourism.
“I made an extremely inappropriate remark at a time when citizens are suffering from soaring rice prices,” Eto told reporters after handing in his resignation at the prime minister’s office.
Ishiba appointed former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi as his replacement at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), saying he was counting on his reform-minded stance to produce results.
“Mr Koizumi is someone who has experience, insights, and passion for reforms on agriculture and fisheries,” Ishiba said.
The doubling of rice prices from last year has become a top concern for Japanese voters, long accustomed to years of deflation and suffering from stubbornly low inflation-adjusted wages.
The government has been releasing rice since March from its emergency stockpile to tame prices, but that has had little impact.
Data on Monday showed supermarket rice prices rising again in the week through May 11, to 4,268 yen ($29.73) for a 5 kg bag, after falling for the first time in 18 weeks. The high prices have increasingly led to retailers and consumers seeking out cheaper, foreign rice.
Ishiba said prices should be between 3,000 yen and 3,999 yen, and that for that to happen, it was necessary to reverse the government’s policy for the last half-century of encouraging reduced production to keep prices steady.
‘MINISTER OF RICE’
“What’s on everyone’s mind right now are the soaring rice prices and anxiety over whether there’s enough of it in the market, and I want to dispel these concerns,” said Koizumi, whose father Junichiro pushed through sweeping reforms and deregulation as prime minister in the 2000s.
“(MAFF) covers a wide range of responsibilities but in my mind, what I need to focus on right now is simply rice. I’m going into this job with the mindset that I am essentially the ‘minister in charge of rice’,” he said.
Koizumi, who previously served as the head of the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) agriculture and forestry division, said there would be no sacred cows in his efforts to lower rice prices, and that a strong political will would be needed to achieve those goals.
Traditionally, rice farmers are a strong support base for the long-governing LDP, and Japan protects the rice market with hefty levies beyond the tariff-free “minimum access” quota agreed under World Trade Organization rules.
Eto’s departure threatens Ishiba’s already-shaky grip on power ahead of key upper house elections in July. His LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the more powerful lower house in a snap election Ishiba called in October shortly after taking office.
Many users on social media expressed disdain over the latest saga.
“Reaffirmed the need for the LDP to be completely annihilated,” one user wrote on X, sharing their belief that Koizumi would do no better than Eto.
Eto’s resignation is the first from Ishiba’s cabinet not involving ministers who lost their seats in elections.
“Minister Eto’s resignation was inevitable from the moment the gaffe occurred,” said Hiroshi Shiratori, a political science professor at Hosei University in Tokyo. “The decision to replace him only after five opposition parties had planned their no-confidence motion was too slow, exposing Prime Minister Ishiba’s lack of leadership.”
A Kyodo News opinion poll on Sunday showed support for Ishiba at a record low 27.4%, with nearly nine out of 10 voters dissatisfied with the government’s response to soaring rice prices.
($1 = 143.5800 yen)
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Yoshifumi Takemoto; Additional reporting by Mariko Katsumura and Kiyoshi Takemotot; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Lincoln Feast and Kate Mayberry)
