Fresh batch: A farmer loading new trays of seedlings while using a transplanter to plant rice at a farm in the town of Sanjo, Niigata prefecture. — AFP
All is calm at Satoshi Yamazaki’s rice farm, with its freshly planted rows of vivid-green seedlings, but a row over the cost of the staple in the country is threatening to deal the government a blow at the ballot box.
Shortages of the grain caused by a supply chain snarl-up have seen prices almost double in a year, fuelling frustration over inflation – and voters could let their anger be known in upper house elections due this month.
