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The story
Rice farmers in Fukui Prefecture are in dire straits after the provisional payment (gaisankin) for Koshihikari rice plunged to 17,000 yen per 60 kg — 12,000 yen lower than last year — driven in part by the government’s massive release of stockpiled rice. One farmer says he’s facing a 20 million yen loss. The government has since moved to buy back stockpiled rice, but farmers have responded with anger — “too little, too late” — with some going so far as to say “we need a peasant uprising.” On 5ch, reactions clashed over who’s really to blame for the price collapse: some blamed the farmers themselves, others went after JA (the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives) and wholesalers, while still others argued it’s time to weed out small-scale farms.
Sept. 22 (Tue), 8:08 PM
FNN Prime Online
Last year, in response to soaring rice prices, the government released huge quantities of stockpiled rice. As a result, the provisional payment made to Fukui Prefecture farmers this year has fallen to 17,000 yen per 60 kg of Koshihikari — down 12,000 yen from last year. A rice farmer in Fukui City who cultivates 50 hectares says the situation is dire: “We’re looking at a 20 million yen loss.” The government has now begun buying back stockpiled rice, but farmers are furious, calling the move “too late” and “not enough,” with some using the strong words “we need a peasant uprising.”
Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here
What people said
There are just too many farmers.
If you wanna quit, quit.
US rice farmers: 5,500
Japan rice farmers: 700,000
US production: 8.7–9.0 million tons
Japan production: 7.0–7.5 million tons
Way too many farmers for the output.
Yeah, we definitely need fewer farmers.
Places like California barely get rain or snow, though.
Japanese farmers are stuck with tiny plots AND stretches where they can't even harvest because of rain.
The climate alone makes it an unfair fight.
Around here, a local Grade-A brand rice is 1,980 yen for 5kg.
If you're not picky about the brand, you can find it for 1,980 yen now too.
Part-time farmers would be even deeper in the red.
I'm a part-time farmer too, and I'm running about a 200,000 yen loss
not counting my own labor.
I only farm about 1/100th of that 50 hectares, so
proportionally it's about the same.
JA and the wholesalers are the real culprits here.
Because rice farmers were raking in profits from the inflated prices too, just like the crappy wholesalers — and now they're acting like victims.
Farmers are angry, sure, but someone needs to tell them their anger should be aimed at JA and the wholesalers, not the government.
↓
Rice wholesalers last month
and it's new-crop season already.
By the standard definition,
Reiwa 7 (2025) harvest rice doesn't count as "old rice" yet.
Don't you dare buy it!
Let's crush their shallow little hope of unloading their stock.
crash in rice prices, alright.
Though, well, they jacked the price way up before crashing it back down lolwww
Probably will.
Rice will just become unstable, and both growing it and eating it will shrink fast.
As a countermeasure, we'll need to
buy up huge amounts of California rice to stabilize supply and prices.
Trump would love that lolwww
even if every paddy run by farms under 3 hectares disappeared,
rice production could still be maintained
https://imgur.com/IEcLs3u.jpeg
All the small paddies can just be abandoned.
No need to consolidate or repurpose them.
Consolidate the land and just let large-scale farms handle it.
Sounds like we don't even need to consolidate it Re: #182
Guess this is the era where inconvenient truths for the establishment just spread across the internet, huh.
Don't need it ⇒ Re: #182
this is what elementary school lunches in Fukuoka and Yokohama look like now
https://imgur.com/9UggSsF.jpeg
https://imgur.com/UgHXkXY.jpeg
The kids are the ones who suffer.
I wish they'd scrap the tariffs already so cheap imported produce could come in and kids could actually eat their fill.
And meanwhile the rice farmers themselves are stuffing their faces with rice, you know?
It exposed the LDP and JA's racket, handing out massive tax money
to people who just rent out storage space without even having proper storage technology.
Just scrap the whole stockpile system already.
Rice you can't eat is nothing but garbage.
Honestly, that's exactly why we should just import the stockpile rice instead.
The stuff I bought at Aeon was surprisingly edible, though.
The smell reminded me of the old Showa-era standard rice.
Background and Key Issues
At the heart of this article is the volatility of the “provisional payment” (gaisankin), the benchmark price for rice transactions. Gaisankin is an advance payment that collection agents like JA make to farmers at harvest time, later settled based on supply and demand — which means that when the market swings wildly, farmers bear the brunt of it directly. Last year, the government released stockpiled rice in response to soaring prices; this year, the provisional payment has plunged in the opposite direction. In the thread, opinions split between those blaming farmers themselves for the price drop and those criticizing JA and wholesalers’ handling of the situation, with some even endorsing the idea of weeding out small-scale farmers. That said, the article’s claim that “closures are on pace for a nationwide high” isn’t broken down in detail in the original piece, so it’s worth being cautious about drawing a simple causal line between price swings and farmers leaving the industry.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Rice] “We Need a Peasant Uprising”: Farmers Battered by “Flip-Flop” Agricultural Policy — Next Season Uncertain… Closures on Pace for Nationwide High“.
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