Japan to set up minister level meeting to address rice supplies

TOKYO – Japan will set up a minister-level meeting as early as this week to address the supply of rice, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in Parliament on June 2, as the government seeks to stabilise the price of the nation’s staple grain and quell public anger ahead of a summer election.

The government released a further 300,000 metric tons of stockpiled rice last week in a bid to bring down prices, which have doubled in the past year.

The move came as households struggle with inflation less than two months before an Upper House election that could punish a minority government already on the back foot after an underwhelming performance in 2024’s general vote.

“With rice costing twice as much – even 2½ times as much in some regions – as last year, it’s very important to steady that and stabilise the market,” Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in the same parliamentary session on June 2.

Retailers including Aeon Co Ltd and Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp, the parent company of popular discount store Don Quijote, started selling the stockpiled rice over the weekend, according to statements from both companies.

Aeon priced its 5kg bag at just under 2,000 yen (S$17.97) before tax, well below the 4,200 yen per bag average consumers are seeing at storefronts.

The government auctioned off batches of stockpiled rice starting in February, but prices have continued to hit record highs.

Mr Koizumi announced last week that the most recent release would be sold at a fixed price instead of auctioned, and bypass the usual supply chain, which includes rice collection agencies and wholesalers. BLOOMBERG

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