TOKYO: Japan will set up a minister-level meeting as early as this week to address the supply of rice, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in parliament on Monday (June 2), as the government seeks to stabilise the price of the nation’s staple grain and quell public anger ahead of a summer election.
The government released a further 300,000 metric tonnes of stockpiled rice last week in a bid to bring down prices, which have doubled in the past year. The move came as households struggle with inflation less than two months before an upper house election that could punish a minority government already on the back foot after an underwhelming performance in last year’s general vote.
"With rice costing twice as much - even 2.5 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 in the same parliamentary session on Monday.
Retailers including Aeon Co Ltd. and Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp., the parent company of popular discount store Don Quijote, started selling the stockpiled rice over the weekend, according to statements from both companies.
Aeon priced its five kilogramme bag at just under ¥2,000 (US$13.97) before tax, well below the ¥4,200 per bag average consumers are seeing at storefronts.
The government auctioned off batches of stockpiled rice starting in February, but prices have continued to hit record highs.
Koizumi announced last week that the most recent release would be sold at a fixed price instead of auctioned, and bypass the usual supply chain, which includes rice collection agencies and wholesalers. - Bloomberg
