As Japan began reconstruction after the end of World War II, the paramount issue was to feed a nation of hungry people. Infrastructure was ruined and farmland abandoned. Agricultural reforms compelled landlords to sell off their large land holdings to the tenant farmers who worked those lands. Newly-incentivized farmers quickly brought the agricultural sector back into production.
Japan has been doing all right for itself. In terms of total volume of food produced, it is number five in the world. It’s a nation obsessed with food self-sufficiency and food security.
With the distorting forces of the global economy, a graying of the population who till the land, a huge agricultural cooperative that may not be representing the true needs of its constituents, and a ruling government party that actively opposes the cooperative, Japan is going through some huge changes.
JA Zenchu (Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives) is a mammoth organization that not only represents the interests of 47 prefectural agricultural co-ops and controls a huge insurance company and one of Japan’s largest banks. JA Zenchu has been steadfast in supporting tariffs on foreign rice (up to nearly 800 percent) and has been opposed to Japan joining the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
In the other corner of the struggle over food, there’s the current government, controlled by Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Abe and his allies would love to break JA Zenchu.
In the current battle between JA Zenchu and the LDP, the LDP seems to be winning. And it’s not just on the political front. Market concerns are changing the roles of middlemen, unions and wholesalers. A huge grocery store chain, Aeon, is beginning to buy rice directly from producers.
The farmers average age around 66 – and they’ve long depended on the advocacy of the JA Zenchu and protectionist policies of the government. Even parties like the LDP still depend on rural turnout during elections. They’re pushing for an end to production controls by 2018, but still subsidizing farmers who switch to other crops or produce rice for livestock.
On one hand, a system is in place that supports small farmers and crop diversity. But the co-op that protects these farmers seems more concerned with insurance and banking. The current government is focused on pushing Japan out of its decades-long economic slump through monetary policy and a rush to corporatize farming. What direction Japan takes remains the big question. Rice will remain on the Japanese table. How it gets there is up for grabs.
