Japan is facing a “rice crisis” as the price of its favourite staple food has nearly doubled over the past year amid rising inflation and supply shortages.
Government data released on Friday shows the price of rice rose 98.4 percent year-on-year in April, following a rise of 92.5 percent year-on-year in March.
The surge is straining the wallets of Japanese consumers and further dampening the popularity of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Emergency measures such as tapping into government rice reserves have failed to make a dent in prices, which climbed to 5,000 yen (about $35) this month for 5kg (11 pounds) of the popular Koshihikari brand of rice. Other varieties hit 4,200 yen (about $29) earlier this month, according to Japanese media.
“We don’t know why we haven’t been able to push prices lower,” Ishiba told Japan’s parliament this week during a question session.
“We first will figure out exactly how much rice there is and where it is,” he said.
Tim Harcourt, chief economist at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), told Al Jazeera several factors continue to put an upwards pressure on rice prices.
“One is panic buying due to rumours of a mega-earthquake,” he said, referring to an online rumour about Japan. “Two is the shortage of wheat due to the Russia-Ukraine war causing a substitute of wheat for rice. And three, is the revival in tourism to Japan and a booming hospitality sector increasing demand for rice.”
Shortages have also been linked to an unusually hot summer in 2023, which led to a poor harvest for Japanese farmers.
Faced with soaring prices, restaurants across Japan and some consumers have bucked the traditional Japanese preference for locally grown rice and started buying cheaper imported varieties.
Left unchecked, Japan’s “rice crisis” could dim the future prospects of Ishiba’s minority government as voters return to the polls later this year for parliamentary elections.
“Rice is the cherished staple in Japan, so an economic crisis automatically becomes a political one,” Harcourt of UTS, told Al Jazeera.
A recent poll by Japanese media showed that the approval rating for Ishiba’s cabinet slid to 27.4 percent this month, down 5 percent from April.
Agricultural Minister Taku Eto was also forced to resign this week after he created an uproar for stating that he “never had to buy rice” due to the many gifts of rice he received from supporters.
The remark was seen as out of touch with voters, who are facing high levels of inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.
His replacement, Shinjiro Koizumi, said on Friday that he aims to get rice prices back to about 3,000 yen (around $20) for a 5kg bag of rice.
Japan’s core inflation rate accelerated to 3.5 percent in April, according to new data from the Bank of Japan, its fastest annual pace in more than two years. The consumer price index, which includes the price of oil but excludes fresh food, rose 3.5 percent in April year-on-year, the BOJ said.
Food prices rose 7.0 percent in April as Japanese companies started their new fiscal year, according to government data. The rise follows a 6.2 percent price rise in March.
Japan was once known for its low levels of inflation, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war helped reverse the decades-long trend in 2022.
Labour shortages have further compounded the problem.
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