[Global Network Report Reporter Li Ziyu] When the Japanese government is releasing reserve rice to the market to stabilize the high rice prices, according to Kyodo News, Japan's largest opposition party, the Congressman of the Constitutional Democratic Party and former Minister of General Affairs Ichibo Haraguchi said on the 7th local time that the government reserve rice is "old Chen rice" for "chicken" and "may contain pollutants."
Ichibo Haraguchi Data Picture Pictured from Japanese media
Japan rice prices have continued to soar recently. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries decided to release the fourth batch of government reserve rice from this year to the market starting from May 29, totaling about 300,000 tons. Since this batch of reserve rice was produced from 2021 to 2022, it was called "Old Chen Rice" by Japanese media.
" Should we buy this kind of thing with gratitude?" Kyodo News quoted Ichihiro Haraguchi as saying. "The main thing that eats this kind of old Chen rice is chicken. Revered humans do not eat it."
The report mentioned that Ichibo Haraguchi made similar remarks on social platform X at the end of May. Meanwhile, opposition National Democratic Party leader Yuichiro Tamaki attracted criticism on social media because he said the government reserve rice "is animal feed in another year." According to relevant policies of the Japanese government, stock rice can be stored for 5 years as feed or wine making purposes. Although Yuichiro Tamaki insisted that his statement was correct, the Japanese people and politicians still expressed strong dissatisfaction with this.
Kyodo News said that after noticing that Yuichiro Tamaki had apologized for his remarks, Ichihiro Haraguchi told reporters, "I am talking about common sense. This is something that will become animal feed, so it may contain pollutants."
Since the summer of 2024, due to factors such as extreme high temperatures, the price of rice has continued to rise. In August last year, the meteorological department issued a warning that the possibility of a major earthquake in the South China Sea trough in the eastern Pacific Ocean increased, causing people to hoard rice, and Japan once experienced a "rice waste". With the launch of new rice, the "rice shortage" has eased, but the rice prices are still high. In order to calm the high rice prices, the Japanese government has recently released multiple batches of reserve rice to the market, and the remaining inventory has been greatly reduced. Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Jinjiro Koizumi said on June 6 this year that if the reserve rice is exhausted, it is not effective to curb the rise in rice prices, urgent import of rice from abroad is "also one of the options."
