In reversal, Japan now wants rice farmers to produce more. Will it work?

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For Japanese people, rice is more than just a staple food.

PHOTO: REUTERS

JOETSU, Japan – For more than half a century, the Japanese government has encouraged its rice farmers to grow less of the crop so that prices of the national staple grain remained relatively high and steady.

Now, under an ambitious agricultural policy announced in 2025, Tokyo is preparing for a reversal, envisaging a future of bountiful output that would secure the country’s food security without sending prices into freefall and hurting its politically influential farmers.

The new direction has taken on an unexpected urgency as Japanese grapple with a shortage of the all-important staple, which has prompted a historic spike in prices, a flood of imports, and interest from President Donald Trump, who has

renewed pressure on Japan to buy US rice

It is a policy that many farmers like Mr Kazuhachi Hosaka welcome in principle, but with trepidation because questions over how it would work in practice remain unanswered. The government is aiming to complete a roadmap by the middle of 2026.

“We’d want the government to make sure there’s some kind of a safety net for producers,” Mr Hosaka said at his farm in the northern prefecture of Niigata.

“It’s easy enough to switch rice for feed or processed foods to staple rice. But tilling land for new paddies or switching from wheat or soya beans would require labour, machinery and all kinds of investments.”

In 2025, Mr Hosaka