politics

Head of Japan's powerful farming lobby to resign in August

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JA is the biggest racket there is, they set prices and have too much power. Glad to see this evil self serving companies broken up.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

This is a difficult call. Opening up markets is good for the consumer. It will lower prices significantly, but there are other concerns. Japan produces only about 40% of its own food and the average age of Japanese farmers is about 67, so this increased competition will lower margins, making farming less attractive as a career which could result in Japan producing even less of its own food. 40% food production is, by far, the lowest in the industrialized world, so this is also a national security issue. Producing less would inevitably mean importing more from China which would give them more leverage in unrelated political negotiations.

Everyone wants lower food prices, but be careful what you wish for.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Everyone wants lower food prices, but be careful what you wish for.

Very well said. But for many people their interest in what is going on goes no further than the prices they see at the supermarket. Just tell them rice will be cheaper, and they won't care about the potential consequences.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Badman,

Japan agriculture issues have NOTHING to do with the TPP. The problem is Japan has done next to nothing to improve agriculture, make things easier to farm, upping the number of hectares, losing all the tiny fragmented fields.

Japan has been doing it to ITSELF for many decades, same with the aging of farmers, its ALL MIJ.

What the TPP will help do is what Japan should have been doing all along & that get going with some improvements, it can be done, JA however has been in the way from the get go & is a plague on farmers, needs to GO, irregardless of the TPP!

8 ( +10 / -2 )

@badman

not necessarily. once small acreage farmers are gone, there will be a tremendous amount of consolidation, which will improve efficiency and output. currently there are too many farmers, and most of them should have gone bankrupt a long time ago, but JA was able to keep them around.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@badman just more scaremongering. China! Isnt even part of the TPP. As one politition put it. Japan will never 100% food efficent. And will struggle to be even 50% food efficient. What Japan needs is strong trade relations with its allies that produce larger amounts of food. Eg Australia NZ USA which are part of the TPP. Enough of this selfish BS , less than 1% of the economy is holding the other 99% to ransom through high import tarriffs inflated prices. The average Japanese is struggling to pay there bills at it is. To keep making them pay to keep this welfare industry afloat is just plain stuidity

4 ( +6 / -2 )

losing all the tiny fragmented fields.

Um, this is Japan, what are they going to do, blast away a bunch of mountains to make bigger fields? I've traveled all across the Canadian prairies and the American Great Plains, and in most places the only thing you can see is FARM!!! Now I don't know anything about the ins and outs of how Japanese agriculture is organized, there may well be important changes to be made. But the overall idea that Japanese agriculture needs to be more "competitive" with North American agriculture, or that trying to do that is even desirable or possible, is delusional.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Um, this is Japan, what are they going to do, blast away a bunch of mountains to make bigger fields?

More than half of Japanese farmers are part-timers who produce very little food, they operate farms mainly for subsidies and tax purposes. As older farmers have died off, many of their fields are no longer cultivated. Much of Japan's farmland is now growing only weeds.

Japanese agriculture is primitve, labor-intensive, and terribly inefficient, which is what happens to pretty much any subsidized pr protected industry. Taking away the subsidies will not destroy farming, though it will make life hard for the 1% of the population who are farmers, but the average farmer is old enough to collect a pension. If agriculture is unsubsidised, farms will consolidate to increase efficiency, and grow produce at a lower cost. This has already begun in some places as some farmers are preparing against TPP being implemented.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I remember reading a story a few years ago about a japanese rice farmer. He wanted to start out with organic rice. Once he rejected JA, JA had other farmers in the area attack his fields with salt, I think, something about bad spirits. 8 years on, he's producing quality rice selling it to highend restaurants at three times the going rate. Breaking up JA will be like going after Al Capone if they decide to fight the reforms.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Abe hasn't gone far enough with this JA revision. Needs to try harder.

badman,

Japan produces only about 40% of its own food and the average age of Japanese farmers is about 67, so this increased competition will lower margins, making farming less attractive as a career which could result in Japan producing even less of its own food.

The statistics you point out are proof that the direction Japan has been heading to date has been wrong. Japan won't have food security with a bunch of 79 year-old skeletons out in the fields. They do their best I'm sure, but they are more like a bunch of scarecrows than farmers.

Sometimes without protectionism, competition does actually bring out the best (or better) in people and organizations.

Japanese agriculture does have it's strengths, it needs to play to them.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Really Japan Farmers have nothing to worry about with Free Trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand to remove tariffs. I have live in both (Australia and Japan) and there is a big difference in quality. Japanese rice is the best rice in the world. Yet it is about Y200 kg and Australian rice in Australia is about Y300 kg for reasonable quality rice. Australian Dairy Product are not allowed to use raw milk making the product more expensive to produce E.G. Camembert in Ausstralia is Y4000 kg and taste like crap. Where the Camembert in Japan is made from raw milk and taste great and is Y1200 kg. Now Beef. I go to Maxvalu and I see in the meat cabet Australian Beef which is cheap and of reasonable quality but it does not sell or is only purchase for pet food. The majority of Japanese consumers are wise and they know a bad produce when they seen one. They are also very weary of Mad cow decease in imported meat produce and even group the decease with Lamb Products. I have enquire at many Hokkaido restaurants that deal in Lamb why they have not Lamb brains on the menu and the answer is always the same. They are scared of the Mad cow decease that might be in the product. What I am saying is that Japanese population has higher standard in taste and will always choose quality over a inferior product.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Cutting off the head of JA is necessary. Make each local JA office independent. Cutting off the tail is also important because we all know how lethal Godzilla's tail can be. Isn't it true that farmers can only get their seed, fertilizer, etc from JA? That control has to stop which will lead to competition, more jobs and businesses.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Affluent Chinese will pay a premium for Japanese rice. Open up the rice markets, let Japan's farmers produce high-end variants way up the value chain for both domestic consumption or export, and let those who prefer to, buy from the rich diversity of rice varieties available for import.

The alternative: a poverty of ambition, creates poverty of nutrition.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japanese rice is the best rice in the world.

If that's true, then why is the domestic market for rice getting smaller and smaller? I do a headcount of my adult students who eat rice on a daily basis ... they are decreasing all the time.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Head of Japan's powerful farming lobby to resign in August

This lobby is the reason Japan hasn't introduced daylight saving for summer: I mean, sunrise at 4:30am? Ridiculous

1 ( +3 / -2 )

why is the domestic market for rice getting smaller and smaller?

The population is shrinking and diets are changing. Some people just like bread more than they like rice, but it doesn't mean Japanese rice is worse than rice elsewhere.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Let's hope they loosen the grip on our short hairs as far as rice is concerned. It is no longer a staple at our family's table due to the outrageous prices. In the states we ate California Japonica at a quarter of the price.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Without all the regulation and market manipulation Japanese farmers could produce more food. They may be fewer farmers but the ones that can compete will produce more rice by far than the average farmer today. Today Japanese agricultural productivity is horrible. It needs to face real competition to improve and thrive.

The JA is hurting farming and more important is stealing from the Japanese consumer. Market protectionism always works the same way, very few benefit and many, many pay higher prices.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japanese rice is the best rice in the world

Ok, so if it's the best, its quality will shine through and people who want the best will continue to pay to eat it. Let the rest of us choose from all the other wonderful varities of rice, or choose cheaper rice. Dont force those of us who prefer different rice to pay through the nose for a product we find bland and claggy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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