(Adnkronos) – Japanese Agriculture Minister Taku Eto resigned today after stating that he had never bought rice because he receives it for free, a statement that sparked numerous negative reactions in the country, facing a real crisis that has seen the price of the staple food of the diet undergo a real surge in recent months.
“I have just submitted my resignation to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba,” Eto said as he left the head of government’s office. The latter immediately accepted his resignation “to avoid blocking agricultural policy”. During a public event held on Sunday, the minister said he “never bought rice because my supporters give me so much that I could practically sell it”.
The statement hit the country’s public opinion very negatively, which has to manage the sharp increase in food prices, and in particular of rice, whose price has practically doubled in a year.
Recently, the Japanese government has had to exceptionally draw on strategic rice reserves to try to mitigate its price, which has risen due to the poor harvests of 2023 due to the heat and panic buying triggered by the “mega-earthquake” alert issued last summer.
Minister Eto tried to justify himself, but his apologies were not enough to appease critics. Junya Ogawa, secretary general of the main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called his statements “extremely inappropriate, intolerable”.
In his place, the Prime Minister appointed Shinjiro Koizumi, a former environment minister much loved by the media and son of the popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Ishiba said he expects Koizumi, 44, to actively address the issue of “soaring rice prices”.
