Japan ducks rice-crisis solution

The Group of Eight summit of the world’s leading industrial nations held in Japan this month was a missed opportunity for the host nation to take center stage in helping to resolve the world rice crisis.

Some relief from the peak rice prices seen in April has already been achieved, in part due to an early announcement by Japan that it would release some of its imported rice stocks, but there has been no follow-up by the government to sustain the momentum achieved in May, and to keep rice prices falling back to levels more affordable by poor countries and poor consumers.
The world rice market remains in crisis. Export prices soared to US$1,100 per ton in April, from $375 per ton in December [1]. In

April, there was concern that if action was not taken, prices might double again, returning them to stratospheric real levels last seen during the crisis in 1973-74.

The loss of rice production in Myanmar due to Cyclone Nargis complicated the task of stabilizing the world rice market. The announcement in May of a release of rice stocks by Japan helped bring rice prices down, to between $700 and $800 a ton in July. But the possibility of cutting them in half by the end of June was not realized, as Japan took no further steps, despite considerable international pressure.

Even after the US government took the lead in making this happen, it seemed that Japan was not willing to “take yes for an answer”. To its credit, the US needed to get US rice growers on board with the plan, a potentially difficult roadblock but one that was successfully overcome. The mystery is why Japan has failed to respond.

Asia Times