The Grain of Truth: In Japan, Political Fortunes Go With Rice
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The Grain of Truth: In Japan, Political Fortunes Go With Rice
JAPAN
In Japan, rice is no joking matter.
Eaten from morning until night, paired with beef or as part of sushi, made into sweets or alcohol, the grain is the single most important food item in the country, so much so that Japanese even has six words to describe it.
It’s so valued that it is even offered to the spirits at religious ceremonies.
But now, Japan has a rice problem.
Due to a poor harvest and distribution issues, prices have doubled in the past year – when it can be found on the shelves at all. The situation has gotten so dire that the Japanese, famously picky about their national staple, are consuming old rice, resorting to polishing brown rice, and have even started to buy foreign rice.
So it was no surprise, then, that when Japan’s Farm Minister Taku Etō of the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) recently said he had no issue getting rice, voters reacted with outrage.
“I have never bought rice, to be honest,” he said, according to Japanese daily, Asahi Shimbun. “Because my supporters give me a lot of rice. I have so much rice in my pantry that I could sell it.”
The uproar was so widespread, with calls for the minister to be replaced for being a “moron” and “out of touch” that it prompted the prime minister to react.
“It is extremely problematic for him to make such a statement in response to the fact that rice is expensive and consumers are very angry and anxious about it,” said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, adding that as the person who appointed Etō, he was “very sorry.”
Last week, Etō resigned.
That was unsurprising, analysts say, because the country is preparing for elections for the upper house of the legislature in July, even as the government’s approval ratings are falling fast, partly because of rice.
A recent poll by the Kyodo news agency found that consumers blame the Ishiba administration for inflation, with approval ratings for the government languishing around 27 percent, the lowest since he took office in October and a dip of more than five percentage points in the past month.
Ishiba was already under pressure after the LDP and its junior coalition partner lost their lower house majority last autumn. Significant losses in the election could cost him the prime minister’s job.
As a result, the government has been racing to resolve the rice crisis by releasing emergency stockpiles of rice from its reserves to bring prices down – a measure usually reserved for natural disasters and other catastrophes. It has started to bypass wholesalers and distributors whom it suspects of hoarding.
It also began buying rice from South Korea for the first time in 25 years, forcing consumers who disdain the taste and quality of foreign rice to compromise.
But prices remain high – and are climbing – with polls showing voters don’t believe the government has done enough.
Still, the bad news keeps on coming. This week, data showed that Japan’s economy, the fifth largest in the world, shrank for the first time in a year and by more than expected due to the impact of new US tariffs – 25 percent on most goods, but almost 50 percent on steel and automobiles. The Trump administration wants Japan to import more US agricultural products, especially rice, which it says is shielded by protectionist policies, Time reported.
Fears of a recession have added to concern that the tariffs could hurt Japan’s hard-earned economic recovery by weighing on exports and forcing companies to pull back on investment, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Still, the government says it won’t bow down to the US and make a bad trade deal, Asia Times reported. “Unlike the UK, Japan is in no hurry to reach a disadvantageous or incomplete trade deal with US President Donald Trump, particularly with elections coming up in July,” the newspaper wrote.
Part of the reason for shunning US negotiations, it added, is that “America’s renewed assault on Japan’s rice farmers is too sensitive to tolerate.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Russia ‘Working On’ Peace as It Pummels Ukraine
RUSSIA
Russia is still working on a draft peace accord with Ukraine, Kremlin officials said Monday, even as Moscow launched its deadliest aerial assault in the war’s three-year history, triggering renewed calls for sanctions and casting doubt on US President Donald Trump’s attempts to broker a ceasefire, Reuters reported.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had not yet submitted its draft memorandum, noting that “serious work is continuing” based on terms discussed during the May 16 talks in Turkey.
The proposal reportedly hinges on a recent prisoner exchange involving 1,000 detainees from each side, which Moscow says marked “the first stage” toward a broader agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Russia would finalize its peace draft once that swap was complete.
While the prisoner exchange was completed Sunday, it was overshadowed by a series of Russian strikes: Between Sunday evening and Monday morning, Russia launched more than 360 drones and missiles across Ukraine – marking the largest drone assault since the war began in February 2022, according to the Ukrainian air force, as the Guardian reported.
At least 12 people were killed – including children – and dozens were injured.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of acting with “total impunity,” while also criticizing “the silence of America” following the attacks.
He also urged the United States and Europe to respond with “increased sanctions” against Moscow, including seizing Russian assets and halting its oil trade.
European leaders and others have repeatedly questioned the Kremlin’s intention to end the war or reach a ceasefire deal, despite recent discussions between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. French President Emmanuel Macron called on Washington to back its diplomacy with the threat of “massive sanctions.”
Analyst Elina Beketova of the Center for European Policy Analysis told Newsweek that Russia is “not interested in meaningful concessions” and will continue attacking Ukraine as it feigns interest in negotiations.
Following the Russian strikes, Trump said on social media that Putin “has gone absolutely crazy,” adding the Russian leader is “needlessly killing a lot of people.”
He also criticized Zelenskyy, claiming the Ukrainian leader “is doing his country no favors by talking the way he does.”
On Sunday, the US president told reporters that he was considering new sanctions against Russia, but no new levies have been announced, Bloomberg added.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin dismissed Trump’s remarks as “emotional overload” but welcomed his continued engagement in peace efforts, the BBC noted.
Reduce Red Tape, French Farmers Demand, in Paris Tractor-Protest
FRANCE
French farmers rode into Paris on tractors Monday and blocked highways around the city in an attempt to persuade the parliament to pass a bill to loosen restrictions on a risky pesticide they say hurts their competitiveness, France 24 reported.
On Monday, French lawmakers discussed a bill to allow the reintroduction of acetamiprid, a pesticide banned in the country for harming bees but legal in most of the other European nations.
Farmers say they need these pesticides to protect their crops and that without them, they are at an economic disadvantage compared with farmers in other nations.
Farmers parked their tractors in front of the National Assembly while lawmakers debated the bill. The left and the Greens have filed over 3,000 amendments to stall the vote, arguing that acetamiprid is a neurotoxicant dangerous for humans as well as bees.
Last month, thousands protested against the return of the pesticide, banned since 2018.
Farmers said their protest was also to show support for legislation that would simplify the process for getting permission to build breeding facilities and create irrigation reservoirs, according to Politico.
The demonstrations mirror massive protests last year in which farmers demanded a reduction in the bureaucratic hassles they face.
Protests are expected to continue until Wednesday.
Venezuela Ruling Socialists Win Elections, Hold ‘Sham’ Vote in Guyana
VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s ruling socialist party won nearly 83 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election, maintaining its significant majority in the National Assembly, in a contest that also saw a “sham” vote in the oil-rich El Esequibo region of Guyana that President Nicolás Maduro claims as Venezuelan territory, Reuters reported.
Ahead of the election, some opposition leaders had asked voters to abstain in protest of the official results of the July 2024 presidential election, which authorities claimed Maduro had won despite evidence to the contrary, according to the Associated Press.
Still, other opposition officials urged people to vote to prevent the opposition from being eliminated completely from the government.
Voter turnout to decide on 24 state governors and 285 lawmakers was 42.6 percent of 21 million eligible voters, similar to the 2021 elections. Voting centers were left empty at times, but senior government officials insisted the turnout was so overwhelming they had to remain open past the scheduled time.
The results of Sunday’s elections will keep Maduro’s party in control of the attorney general’s office and the top court, whose members are elected by lawmakers.
Maduro also staged regional elections to elect a governor and legislators to represent the disputed oil-rich region of Essequibo, which is internationally recognized as part of Guyana, the Washington Post wrote.
Guyanese officials have said the vote is illegitimate, and the US State Department called Maduro’s election there a “sham.”
Analysts say that Maduro is using the election to escalate a long-standing territorial dispute to appropriate the region’s oil reserves.
Venezuela has long claimed El Esequibo as its own, but Guyana always rejected those claims, citing an 1899 decision that had settled the dispute. In 2023, Maduro held a national referendum over Venezuela’s right to claim sovereignty over El Esequibo and claimed almost total support from voters. However, international analysts and observers questioned the results because of low voter turnout.
The International Court of Justice, involved in the case since Guyana filed a complaint over the region in 2018, said that Venezuela could not conduct an election in the disputed territory.
The night before Sunday’s election, Guyana held a “national patriotic concert” where people waved Guyanese flags and publicly reaffirmed that Essequibo is part of their territory.
DISCOVERIES
Poetic Science
Ancient Chinese poetry is offering scientists new insights into the history of a porpoise species that has inhabited the Yangtze River for centuries.
The Yangtze finless porpoise, Neophocaena asiaeorientalis, is the world’s only freshwater porpoise and is critically endangered, with around only 1,250 individuals remaining.
Due to the limited number of official records on this cetacean species, a research team turned to classical poetry, some dating as far back as 618 CE – for their latest study.
“We’re connecting 2,000 years of Chinese culture with biodiversity,” said Zhigang Mei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a statement. “Our work fills the gap between the super long-term information we get from fossils and DNA and the recent population surveys.”
The researchers analyzed 724 poems that referenced the Yangtze finless porpoise, including works by Qing dynasty emperor and poet Qianlong, who mentioned the animals during his travels along Asia’s longest river in the mid-18th century.
“The poets vividly described the actual behaviors of the porpoises (using language) such as ‘blowing waves,’ ‘surging waves,’ and ‘bowing to the wind,’” co-author Yaoyao Zhang told Scientific American.
By combining these poetic references with historical records, the team was able to reconstruct the porpoise’s historical distribution across the Yangtze River and its tributaries. Their findings revealed that the porpoise’s range has declined by 65 percent over the past 1,400 years, with an even steeper 91 percent drop in its tributary habitats.
Most of this decline occurred in the 20th century and aligns with previous studies linking population declines to human activities such as dam construction and hydraulic engineering projects.
Similar environmental pressures led to the functional extinction of other Yangtze wildlife such as the baiji dolphin and Chinese paddlefish.
Mei and his colleagues now plan to further explore ancient texts to better understand how the river and its wildlife have changed over time. He hopes that this interdisciplinary approach will contribute to the conservation of the endangered porpoise.
“This work made me rethink the scientific value of historical literature and showed us the power of thinking across disciplines,” Mei said in the statement. “Using the past to understand the present, ‘decoding’ the stories behind the art – it’s not just research, it’s like having a conversation with the poets of the past.”