Author: Japan Reacts Editorial

Even as the government moves to cut the consumption tax on food to 1%, it is reportedly also coordinating a plan to offset the resulting lost revenue for small and micro-scale farming operations through subsidy payments tied to sales volume. On 5ch’s Newsflash+ (News Speed+) thread, arguments flared over the mechanics of tax-exempt and simplified-taxation businesses — with posters asking “why do only farmers get special treatment?” — alongside debate over how to fund a scheme estimated to cost several trillion yen.

On the 25th, the government began coordinating a plan to pay a fixed amount in subsidies to support small and micro-scale farming and fishing operations that stand to lose revenue from cutting the consumption tax on food and beverages to 1%. The scheme envisions offsetting the lost revenue based on the scale of each business’s sales, cushioning the blow to their operations. Details of the program and the payment amounts will be worked out during the compilation of the draft FY2027 budget, with a final decision by the end of 2026.

The government has presented an outline of the support plan to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The goal is to ease the anxiety of businesses affected by the tax cut and ensure a smooth rollout of the reduced rate starting in April 2027.

Small-scale operators make up the vast majority of Japan’s agriculture and fisheries sector. Under the current system, businesses are exempt from remitting all or part of the consumption tax they collect on sales, and can keep that money as income instead. Businesses with annual sales of ¥10 million or less are fully exempt (“tax-exempt businesses”), while those with sales up to ¥50 million are partially exempt (“simplified-taxation businesses”).

Source: 47news.jp / Read the original article here

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Newsflash+) thread “Consumption Tax Cut: Subsidies for Small Farmers, Offsetting Lost Revenue Based on Sales.”

Private-sector rice inventories hit a record 2.43 million tons by the end of June, and prices have kept falling. Experts point to the government’s massive release of reserve rice as the cause of the glut, and on 5ch opinion split over how successive agriculture ministers Ishiba, Eto, and Koizumi handled it, and over whether JA (the agricultural co-op) or wholesalers bear the blame.

During the “Reiwa Rice Crisis,” the agricultural cooperatives’ rice collection and distribution practices were repeatedly blamed for driving up prices. But what’s happening now is the reverse: rice wholesalers who bought up 2025-harvest rice at high prices are dumping it at a loss, with some driven out of business or into bankruptcy — while newly harvested rice that has nowhere else to go is flowing back to JA.

Many in the rice industry and among experts point out that the government released far too much reserve rice, flooding the market. Private inventories hit a record 2.43 million tons at the end of June. With the previous year’s rice still piled up as the 2026 harvest comes in, farmers, JA, and wholesalers alike are all left bearing the burden of the collapsing rice price.

Expert commentary and analysis

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

14AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:10

JA Pearl Rice: 'We're making so much money we can't stop laughing'

75AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:19

Re: #14
Guess they'll have to kick back plenty to their pet Diet members…

110AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:21

Re: #71
⇒ Re: #14

Pearl Rice and Kotoku Shinryo are both capital-affiliated with JA

"JA Zen-Noh invests in Kotoku Shinryo" — Nikkei
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO28942700T00C18A4TJ2000/?n_cid=dsapp_share_android

224AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:32

Re: #1

It's just that the 2025 crop was abnormally expensive — it's still high now.


For reference, here are the provisional payments for the 2023 and 2024 crops

234AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:33

Japan Meat (supermarket chain)
Koshihikari rice, 1,999 yen

240AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:34

Kansai region

New-crop rice, 5kg for 1,980 yen

282AnonymousAug 25, 2026 21:38

Re: #240
Kansai really is cheap — new-crop rice going for what the old reserve rice used to cost.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Behind the Rice Price Crash: Koizumi’s Reserve Rice Release Hailed a Win — the ‘Flooding Operation’.”