TOKYO – Japan will establish a minister-level meeting as early as this week to tackle the nation’s surging rice prices, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced in Parliament on June 2. The move comes as the government attempts to stabilise the price of its staple grain and ease mounting public frustration ahead of a summer Upper House election.
In response to the price crisis, the government released an additional 300,000 metric tons of stockpiled rice last week. Rice prices have doubled over the past year, with some regions reporting increases of up to 2½ times, fuelling household inflation woes and putting political pressure on an already embattled minority government still reeling from its weak performance in the 2024 general election.
“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 during the same parliamentary session.
Retailers, including Aeon Co Ltd and Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp, the parent company of discount chain Don Quijote, began distributing the newly released stockpile over the weekend. Aeon has priced its 5kg rice bags at just under 2,000 yen (S$17.97) before tax, significantly below the market average of 4,200 yen.
While the government has been auctioning off stockpiled rice since February, prices have continued to climb. In a shift of strategy, Mr Koizumi announced that the latest release would bypass the traditional supply chain of rice collection agencies and wholesalers, and instead be sold at a fixed price directly to retailers in an effort to ensure faster and more affordable access for consumers.