this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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Emergency reserves, high prices, rationing. How did Japan's rice crisis get this far? (japantoday.com)
submitted 1 week ago by Domino@lemmings.world to c/world@quokk.au
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Rice is essential to Japanese culture, tradition and politics. People take pride in the oval-shaped sticky Japonica grain, which is still a staple even though total consumption has fallen over the decades.

But since last summer, prices have soared as supplies have fallen short of demand. The government has long paid farmers to cut back on rice acreage, and change to other crops to keep rice prices relatively high.

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

“The government has long paid farmers to cut back on rice acreage, and change to other crops to keep rice prices relatively high.”

Oopsie.

[–] Archangel1313@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago

Then there's this part...

“We don't know why we haven’t been able to push prices lower," Ishiba said during parliamentary questioning Wednesday when asked how exactly his government will resolve the problem.

Just, wow.