Japan’s Agriculture Minister, Taku Etō, has resigned after sparking public outrage with remarks about never buying rice—a sensitive issue as the country grapples with rising food prices.
“Just now I submitted my resignation to Prime Minister Ishiba,” Etō told reporters at the prime minister’s office.
His resignation adds pressure on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whose administration is already under fire for failing to curb rising rice prices and address a broader cost-of-living crisis ahead of critical upper house elections in July.
Etō faced intense backlash after revealing that he never had to buy rice because his supporters gave him so much that he “could practically sell it.” The comment was made during a political fundraiser last weekend, drawing criticism from voters struggling with nearly double the rice prices compared to a year ago.
Although Etō had earlier expressed sympathy for consumers and praised the government’s move to release 300,000 tons of rice from emergency stockpiles to ease prices, his fundraiser remarks contradicted that stance.
“I asked myself whether it is appropriate for me to stay at the helm at a critical time for rice prices, and I concluded that it is not,” he said, according to Kyodo News. “Once again, I apologise to people for making extremely inappropriate comments as minister when they are struggling with surging rice prices.”
Etō has been replaced by Shinjirō Koizumi, a former environment minister who unsuccessfully challenged Ishiba for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership last autumn.
Japan’s rice crisis has been attributed to a combination of poor harvests caused by the 2023 heatwave, panic-buying after a major earthquake warning in 2024, and stockpiling by wholesalers anticipating further shortages.
The scandal has dealt another blow to Prime Minister Ishiba’s government. In a recent Kyodo survey, 87% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s response to rice price hikes. Approval ratings for Ishiba’s cabinet have plunged to their lowest since he assumed office in October.
The average supermarket price for 5kg of rice reached a record ¥4,268 ($29) in the week ending 11 May, up from ¥4,214 the previous week. In April, Japan imported rice from South Korea for the first time in 25 years to ease the shortage and rising public anger.
Opposition leaders seized on Etō’s remarks. Junya Ogawa, secretary general of the Constitutional Democratic Party, condemned the comments as “extremely inappropriate, out of touch and intolerable.”
Etō even admitted his wife was upset by the remarks. “She told me that she does buy rice when the donated rice runs out,” he said. “It’s not like our family is living entirely off rice given to us as gifts.”
Source: The Guardian