Hanno Jentzsch contributes his expertise about Japanese rural politics, agriculture and how rice - "Japan’s most politicized crop" - is still of importance for local politicians in rural Japan.
Agriculture makes up around 1% of Japan’s GDP. But nearly every Japanese farmer is a member of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, an association started by the Japanese government to regulate the industry but that also lobbies for farmers’ interests. JA has historically been successful in organizing the farm vote for LDP candidates who push for higher rice prices—which, prior to 1995, were set by the Japanese government.
Since the partial liberalization of the market in 1995, which let rice prices be determined by supply and demand but artificially limited supply, the power of the organized farm vote has waned slightly, but “it can still make or break candidates in rural constituencies,” says Hanno Jentzsch, an associate professor at the University of Vienna who specializes in Japanese agricultural reform. Those candidates “are still very much interested in having the farming community behind them”—and those are the lawmakers pushing hardest against the proposal to liberalize rice, Jentzsch says.
