(Miniscule minority of) Japanese Begin to Question Protections Given to Homegrown Rice
...while the farmers scream bloody murder against TPP and modernization.
AGA, Japan — For decades, Japan has defended its 778 percent tariffs on rice with a kind of religious zeal. Rice is a sacred crop, the government has argued, not open to trade negotiations. Its farmers are not just defenders of a proud agrarian heritage, but form the nation’s spiritual center as well.
Hardly, says Hiromitsu Konsho, a young organic rice farmer in this rice-growing region of Niigata. Many Japanese farmers have all but given up on their tiny plots, he says. They earn most of their income elsewhere, farming only part time and paying little attention to improving their crops....
I know someone who has his own field, and it's maybe two weeks of work a year for thousands of dollars of income, not even including the subsidies.
