Japan’s Rice Market in Turmoil as Corporate Giants Hoard Premium Grain

Tokyo’s rice crisis hits new lows—while agri-conglomerates corner the market on top-tier harvests, small farmers get crumbs. Sound familiar? Just another day in late-stage capitalism.

Why it matters: When the big players control supply, prices spike and quality plummets for everyone else. Free market efficiency at its finest.

The fallout: Local shops now sell ’economy grade’ rice at luxury prices. Meanwhile, commodity traders quietly book record profits. Some things never change—whether it’s rice or crypto, the house always wins.

Koizumi to release older rice to small businesses, rural areas

Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a House of Representatives committee meeting Wednesday: “We want to continue making efforts to distribute stockpiled rice as widely as possible in the region,” intending to focus on smaller businesses after ending sales to large buyers on Tuesday.

Terraced rice fields in Japan. Photo: DeltaWorks. Of the 300,000 tons up for sale via the new discretionary contracts scheme, much of the newer grain (from 2022) was quickly gobbled up instantly by giant corporations such as AEON and Pan Pacific International Holdings (PPIH). One local supermarket manager, Tatsuhito Tanaka, was quoted by regional media about the scheme, saying: “I really hope they’ll share the rice with us so that it’s not just the big companies.” As per regional reports, the remaining 100,000 tons of older (2021) stockpiled rice is set to be contracted out to smaller enterprises over the next few months. The focus will onstensibly be on supporting rural areas.

Farmers say the government is the real reason for the shortage

As Cryptopolitan reported previously, there is much debate over why a shortage of Japan’s prize grain even occurred in the first place. Mass media has been blaming the weather and myriad other factors, but full-time Japanese farmers are directly blaming the government and special interests for subsidizing limits on acreage, engaging in backroom deals, and essentially rigging prices and contracts. As nippon.com reported last year: “Currently, 40% of paddy fields are not in use, meaning that production is limited to around 6.5 million tons. If Japan stopped this policy of reduced production, and instead exported 4 million tons, it could handle the kind of situation seen this year through a small decrease in the amount exported and no domestic shortages.”

JPY to USD historical data. Source: Trading Economics. Koizumi’s stance has drawn fire from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, with party member Kaori Ishikawa noting Wednesday that it is not the state’s place to be involved in rice prices. Koizumi responded that this was only an “emergency measure.” State intervention thus far has not lowered the still-rising prices. From the stance of many, corporate giants are getting preferential treatment, with local supermarkets left to crunch on the remaining, oldest grain almost as an afterthought. Much like the small-scale farmers unable to produce due to Japan Agriculture Cooperatives’ powerful connections to Tokyo subsidies and restrictions. At the time of writing, the USD is flexing against JPY again, with an exchange rate of 145.81 JPY/1 USD.

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