Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - In order to stretch his money further as a falling yen drives up the price of imported maize used in an...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - In order to stretch his money further as a falling yen drives up the price of imported maize used in animal feed, Japanese farmer Kiyoharu Hirao has started to add additional rice to the mixture he feeds his cattle.
He becomes concerned for the quality of his prized wagyu beef and, along with several other farmers across the nation who are dealing with similar difficulties, he becomes enraged at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which once had an almost impenetrable hold on rural Japan.
The 73-year-old Hirao said to Reuters at his farm on the outskirts of Yamagata city, to the strains of classical music emanating from speakers inside his barn, "I don't know how much more people can take, myself included, because the price of feed and other items keep going up." He's been using music to soothe the cows and produce soft beef for years. He now worries that the rice will damage their intestinal flora.
Japan's farmers have been hard impacted by the yen's decline to a more than two-decade low this year, making it even more difficult to finance the already high cost of imported feed, gasoline, and fertiliser. Some people, like Hirao, are making budget cuts or taking out loans. Some people have considered quitting farming entirely.
The scenario has increased the low-key unhappiness in Yamagata, Hirao's prefecture, which is predominantly agricultural and is famed for its rice, cattle, and cherry. Yamagata is located around 250 miles (400 kilometres) north of Tokyo.
At least 10 of the Yamagata farmers who contacted with Reuters indicated unhappiness there or in other agricultural areas, showing cracks in the LDP's rural base. Reuters spoke to two dozen farmers, politicians, and policy specialists throughout Japan, including a dozen farmers there.
According to polls, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will probably lead the LDP to victory in the upper house vote on July 10; yet, the consequences of inflation and the depreciating yen could lose him important rural votes and weaken his hold on the discordant party.
Hirao claimed that after once being a steadfast LDP supporter, he began to turn against the group because he believed it did not do enough for farmers. Under previous prime minister Shinzo Abe, who promoted free trade and released monetary stimulus in an effort to overcome deflation and raise wages, his opponents grew stronger. He stated that he is more inclined to support the incumbent candidate, who is from the opposition, in the upcoming election.
Even if prices are rising currently, incomes have not changed in decades. Even though rising rates typically results in a rise in the value of a nation's currency, Japan's central bank, which is led by an Abe appointment, has maintained extremely low interest rates.
Low loan rates are all that's needed for us to survive, but eventually the younger generations end up bearing the load, according to Hirao. "I detest every single person that Abe chose. They are all completely useless."
In Japan, about 1.3 million people, or less than 2% of the labour force, are predominantly employed in agriculture. However, because rural voters are disproportionately supported by the electoral system and because agriculture cooperatives, often known as the JA Group, create a robust lobby, farmers are a major political force.
According to some Yamagata farmers who spoke to Reuters, the LDP deceived them by prioritising free trade above farmers in the last ten years, reducing support programmes and widening access to the Japanese market for overseas competitors. They want to go back to a time when there was strong government backing and a stronger emphasis on protection, which was a cornerstone of LDP policy for many years but is now mostly gone.
According to Kazuhito Yamashita, a former agriculture ministry bureaucrat and current research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies think tank, the LDP will be need to do more for farmers in order to win back these disgruntled rural voters.
"Farmers will make less money and become more disgruntled as the cost of gasoline, insecticides, and fertiliser rises. Their backing for the LDP would progressively wane, "added he. The LDP will be forced to support the farm lobby's preferred ideas in elections because it doesn't want to alienate the agriculture lobby.
A LDP official declined to directly address the topic of the party's support among farmers in response to questioning from Reuters. Without providing more information, the spokesperson stated that the LDP was working to ensure that all citizens, not just those involved in agriculture, understood its policies and pointed Reuters to its election manifesto, which includes a commitment to mitigate the effects of higher fuel, feed, and fertiliser prices.
Toshiaki Endo, the chair of the LDP's election strategy committee and a lower-house lawmaker from Yamagata, warned party members in April that the rise in energy and commodities costs was concerning. "This is going to be a really tough struggle,"
A Jiji Press poll this month revealed that public support for Kishida recently hit a four-month low of 48.7% and that more than 54 percent disapprove of his management of inflation.
BEST RESPONSIBILITY
Farmers and analysts claimed that Abe's advocacy for a significant trans-Pacific trade agreement in 2013, which Japan officially ratified five years later, hurt the LDP's standing in the rice-growing north. Despite having three LDP legislators in the lower house, Yamagata is one of only a few prefectures without any lawmakers in the upper house.
"Farmers and agricultural organisations have historically been ardent allies of the ruling party. But in the last ten years, many people have come to see that relying solely on the LDP is not a good idea "said Toshihiro Ooyama, a farmer of the agricultural cooperative in Yamagata city and a member of the 12th generation.
The Norinchukin Bank, which has $756 billion in assets and is a significant player in the international financial markets, is used by the cooperatives to invest farmers' savings and campaign on their behalf.
Regarding farmers' backing for the LDP, JA Group declined to comment. It said that growing costs for fuel, raw materials, and animal feed were giving agricultural farmers "widespread worry." It linked Reuters to a seven-page policy proposal published this month that asked for steps to lessen the burden on farmers, such as government assistance to increase local production of crops needed for feed.
Even though government subsidies still account for 41% of farmers' income in Japan, which is more than double the average of the OECD's wealthy countries, the country has lowered its support for agriculture in recent decades. According to the OECD, Japanese farmers in 2018 to 2020 charged 60 percent more than comparable prices on the global market for their produce.
According to some economists, Japan's ageing population can no longer afford to subsidise farmers heavily. But without it, the LDP risked losing its hold on a significant portion of the electorate.
According to 57-year-old Kazuharu Igarashi, "The LDP will basically hit a wall" in Yamagata if it does not provide greater assistance to farmers.
He also adds rice to animal feed at his hog shed in Tsuruoka, close to the Sea of Japan, since he worries the pork will be drier. He claimed that so yet, no customers have noticed. Over his break-even point of about 60%, about 80% of his monthly income of 10 million yen ($75,000) is now spent on animal feed. He claimed he borrowed money from a prefectural emergency fund, but he is worried that other farmers won't be able to make ends meet.
He declared that, like Hirao, he is inclined to vote for Yasue Funayama of the moderate Democratic Party for the People in the upcoming election. She favours guaranteed minimum wages for rice farmers in the vein of those in Europe. She was a former farm ministry bureaucrat.
Although production has been liberalised, Funayama told Reuters in an interview at her Tokyo office that "the government claims rice is at the centre of our culture and the people's main diet." "The government has abdicated its primary duty,"
According to a source acquainted with the LDP's thinking, given Funayama's popularity, the party thought about not fielding a challenger. With almost six weeks till the voting on July 10 it only identified one. Regarding whether it had thought about not fielding a candidate in Yamagata for the upcoming election, the LDP declined to answer.
Undoubtedly, a wide range of factors can affect how farmers vote, particularly given that 70 percent of them are 65 or older.
According to Kay Shimizu, a research assistant professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh and co-author of a book about Japanese agriculture and the JA cooperatives, "there is such a broad variety among the farming population."
"On the one hand, they are interested in their health and in farming, which is how they support themselves, but they are also interested in other things. They have social welfare concerns, and many of them are much older."
A rice farmer in central Yamagata named Kazuyuki Oshino claimed that due to growing prices, three different farmers asked him to take over the care of their paddies.
"Things will be hard if conditions stay as they are," he remarked. "So they gave up."
