Japan Food Supply: Updated April 6, 2024

 

Japan enforces food supply emergency law amid soaring costs

Article source:  https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250401/p2g/00m/0na/018000c

Ideas:

Japan's new food supply emergency measures sounds like an attempt to gloss over the situating with the rice supply and surging prices since last summer. It might be an honest attempt to improve the food supply as weather and temperatures seem to be causing a lot of concern in Japan these days.

Japanese farmers might submit plans but they have no control over the weather or temperatures that can significantly affect the supply of food crops. And there is no guarantee that the plan they submit will be correct as again the weather can increase or decrease the supply.

It might be a good idea to try to curb food shortages but again there is no guarantee that future crops will be enough to handle what is needed, and who knows when the situation is going to end. 

Another idea might be to try and improve the volume of imports of certain foods, such as foreign rice, as a way to ensure rice supplies are adequate for Japan.

But there is always the idea that some Japanese don't want foreign food but if food manufacturers use the foreign food in raw materials and or restaurants do the same thing, who is going to really know or really care.

The increase in rice which increased 80.9 percent might be a combination of less that normal supplies and some suppliers and rice venders keeping to the price high for their own benefit and not the benefit for the good of society.

Some might call this sticky prices and its not a play on words as when prices remain high for a very long time, and they don't come down naturally, that might be because something or someone in the market might be causing the prices to remain too high.

While its good that the government has designated 12 foods as crucial foods but what seems to not have been considered if a supply of one of the 12 foods gets too low the government should consider temporary price controls to ensure that prices don't go too high for the good of society.

It's very good that the supply of fertilizers, and pesticides needed for production are there for farmers, but will the farmers have to pay for the needed supplies and how much as farmers have very thin profit margins to work with and if the needed supplies cost too much they are losing more for the production of a crop.

All that is good and needed but again there is no guarantee that Japanese farmers can improve the supply of their crops, as again they are at the mercy of the weather and temperatures related to their crops.

And again, there is always the idea of importing of foreign food whether its rice or something else to ensure there is always an adequate supply of food in Japan.

The law seems very strict as again farmers have no control over their exact crops and yes, imports is the best way to supplement domestic supplies if there was a less than good growing season. 

Again all of this seems like an exaggerated attempt to fix the rice supply situation that started in the summer of 2023 but didn't really manifest himself until the early summer of 2024.

Supplies might have grown due to the Japanese government releasing its reserve rice supply and with the increase of foreign rice imports too.

And then is there the challenge of prices still being too high, as it might be a market failure problem related to some suppliers even some supermarkets keeping the price of rice high to maximize their own profits at the detriment of the common good of Japanese society.

Have a nice day!

Japan Rice Production Challenges: Updated March 21, 2025.

Not enough rice': Production down after summer heat, stink bug damage: east Japan farmers

Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250311/p2a/00m/0na/012000c

Ideas:

In quite possible the normal mechanisms of supply and demand are not working right now in the rice market in Japan. Normally, with a shortage, producers will increase prices enough to make the same profits as if there was no shortage, but in this situation it doesn't seem like that is happening now.

Even though the Japanese government released 210,000 metric tons of stockpiled rice, for whatever reason it was/is not enough to bring prices down and or keep Japanese farmers happy.

The summer of 2024 and the rice situation might be a once in a life-time situation but unfortunately it has affected both farmers, consumers, restaurants, and supermarkets in Japan.

Why doesn't the government use price controls to help Japanese families like the one in the article with three young children or at least temporarily until the rice market stabilizes.

Its seems everyone is very unhappy with the situation as farmers are not getting the benefit or the higher prices and Japanese households are not getting the benefit of Japanese government rice reserves hitting the market to try and reduce the price of rice.

Perhaps, its quite possible the middlemen in this situation are the ones gaining all the benefits with keep prices higher while both the farmers and the Japanese households are not seeing any benefit at all.

Supermarkets are not to blame as they are at the mercy of the rice suppliers in Japan, and they can supply when they want and how they want which like the supermarket in the article suggests they can't get their needed deliveries on time to help Japanese customers.

Its also quite possible that some supermarkets, or restaurants, or other are given more preference over others related to when and who rice supplies are given or delivered.

Inflation/prices, just keeps going up in Japan with no real sign of help from the Japanese government as they mostly are just letting the market be normal or natural and letting inflation just run its course in Japan.

Not to blame anyone, but statistics can be mis-calculated and sometimes on purpose for many different reasons. 

But if correct, as it says in the article, the volume of rice in 2024 was increased by 180,00 tons compared to 2023. So why was there a so-called rice shortage in 2024 if the volume was increased.

But the last part of the paragraph might be more correct as it says 230,000 tons of rice was not gathered and only 2.21 million tons was which did leave a shortage.

It seems the Japanese government can't make rice producers or small collectors from withholding their rice stock, as its natural for producers to withhold from selling their stock for higher prices in the future.

Of course Japanese households will continue to suffer with higher prices, and unfortunately in a market economy there are some who only think about themselves and not the common good of society. 

And it was good that the Japanese government released stockpiled reserves, but again, acting in their best interest only, maybe the middlemen have continue to keep the price high at the detriment of Japanese households and society.

Again, the Japanese government might be trying to bring prices down with the release of more rice reserves, but the price as not gone down, which again, might suggest that the middlemen in this situation are keeping prices high and not necessarily the supermarkets in Japan, but some supermarkets might be part of the problem too.

And yes, supply-and-demand forecasts could be way off the target like maybe they were in the summer of 2024, when it seemed no one saw the rice shortage coming or failed to say anything about it at the time.

Yes, distribution issues seem to be at the heart of the problem with the rice market as maybe its not the farmers fault, as they are at the mercy of the weather and its not the supermarkets fault as they are at the mercy of the supplies and the suppliers prices they set, which supermarkets have to pay, and again, it might be the middlemen and maybe even the Japanese government too with its late response to the rice shortage in Japan.

As suggested in the article. the government statistics related to estimates and forecasting might have been less than sufficient or the estimates were not correct. Bu to be fair, due to weather and dealing with people/farmers, estimates can be off as producers and supplies do not always meet the estimates, for a variety of reasons.

Estimates can be more or less and in this situation it looks like they were off and not on target for what was expected, and there is always the possibility that demand for rice was actually higher than expected which means while the estimate might have been correct for the expected demand, the higher demand skewed the results or what was needed.

Yes, as with any government as reporting statistics they want make is sound more rosy and good while the reality might have been much different as the article suggested.

The crop conditions might not have been good but governments don't want to give a dreary report about something as important as rice production.

Never say the Japanese government is wrong or mislead the public but miscalculations do happen and in this case it seems there was a major miscalculation.

Unfortunately poor weather and bugs can have a major affect on the production of crops and this like is what happened in Japan.

If crop levels were only 10-20 percent of the usual levels that is a significant reduction in the rice production in Japan. What seems not so good is why didn't the Japanese government release rice reserves on time, if they knew the rice production level related to the demand was less than needed.

It seems like this was a major blunder by the Japanese government or some government agency that handles rice production and rice reserves in Japan.'

It looks like the middlemen who handle the supply might have stockpiled the rice and didn't release it with the idea of increasing the price to make significant profits at the expense of Japanese households.

The article suggests that middlemen and other actually withheld the rice production until the price of rice get high enough and then they released the rice when the price was high.

All of this is unfortunately as Japanese households have had to suffer with higher rice prices when in reality they could have been much less than what was needed.

Have a nice day!