Berliner Boersenzeitung - Japan's sticky problem with Trump, tariffs and rice

EUR -
AED 4.26841
AFN 80.362394
ALL 97.542216
AMD 446.735356
ANG 2.080099
AOA 1065.794205
ARS 1481.767207
AUD 1.776887
AWG 2.092071
AZN 1.980459
BAM 1.954642
BBD 2.348809
BDT 141.226338
BGN 1.956132
BHD 0.43834
BIF 3466.946195
BMD 1.162261
BND 1.493215
BOB 8.038238
BRL 6.486005
BSD 1.163311
BTN 100.147673
BWP 15.618748
BYN 3.807045
BYR 22780.325028
BZD 2.336716
CAD 1.596076
CDF 3354.287055
CHF 0.932981
CLF 0.029194
CLP 1120.296341
CNY 8.342655
CNH 8.346165
COP 4674.330945
CRC 587.052233
CUC 1.162261
CUP 30.799929
CVE 110.199718
CZK 24.634179
DJF 206.947405
DKK 7.463699
DOP 70.258379
DZD 151.514244
EGP 57.439973
ERN 17.433922
ETB 161.636047
FJD 2.620788
FKP 0.864949
GBP 0.86668
GEL 3.150183
GGP 0.864949
GHS 12.127816
GIP 0.864949
GMD 83.106172
GNF 10094.020343
GTQ 8.931709
GYD 243.385819
HKD 9.117884
HNL 30.445964
HRK 7.532663
HTG 152.739518
HUF 398.923459
IDR 18977.696027
ILS 3.902549
IMP 0.864949
INR 100.127437
IQD 1523.897249
IRR 48945.741055
ISK 142.354235
JEP 0.864949
JMD 186.029797
JOD 0.824089
JPY 172.932309
KES 150.300962
KGS 101.640213
KHR 4662.238109
KMF 491.989694
KPW 1046.046309
KRW 1616.942576
KWD 0.355234
KYD 0.969426
KZT 620.152624
LAK 25087.138481
LBP 104232.653
LKR 350.972086
LRD 233.241828
LSL 20.596898
LTL 3.431856
LVL 0.703041
LYD 6.327252
MAD 10.519168
MDL 19.788278
MGA 5176.933206
MKD 61.523554
MMK 2439.678938
MNT 4168.013035
MOP 9.404829
MRU 46.275587
MUR 53.119698
MVR 17.903172
MWK 2017.205016
MXN 21.795313
MYR 4.935007
MZN 74.338683
NAD 20.596898
NGN 1779.387897
NIO 42.814637
NOK 11.840776
NPR 160.236077
NZD 1.945045
OMR 0.446995
PAB 1.163311
PEN 4.140847
PGK 4.817146
PHP 66.377189
PKR 331.310933
PLN 4.244785
PYG 9003.666265
QAR 4.229694
RON 5.072695
RSD 117.080642
RUB 91.375869
RWF 1681.00418
SAR 4.36165
SBD 9.64543
SCR 17.082281
SDG 697.942292
SEK 11.235354
SGD 1.492813
SHP 0.913355
SLE 26.62005
SLL 24372.046713
SOS 664.806172
SRD 43.245469
STD 24056.466061
STN 24.485495
SVC 10.17897
SYP 15112.803405
SZL 20.592801
THB 37.628259
TJS 11.196867
TMT 4.079538
TND 3.419874
TOP 2.722137
TRY 46.897678
TTD 7.897322
TWD 34.181766
TZS 3030.404801
UAH 48.58252
UGX 4168.530579
USD 1.162261
UYU 46.882227
UZS 14725.276806
VES 135.943958
VND 30404.760344
VUV 138.92149
WST 3.080055
XAF 655.568644
XAG 0.030448
XAU 0.000347
XCD 3.14107
XCG 2.096558
XDR 0.815317
XOF 655.568644
XPF 119.331742
YER 280.163552
ZAR 20.584139
ZMK 10461.752209
ZMW 26.785133
ZWL 374.247723
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Japan's sticky problem with Trump, tariffs and rice
Japan's sticky problem with Trump, tariffs and rice / Photo: Richard A. Brooks - AFP

Japan's sticky problem with Trump, tariffs and rice

Donald Trump's insistence that "spoiled" Japan imports more US rice is adding to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's problems ahead of elections that could sink his premiership after less than a year in office.

Text size:

Japan is one of more than 20 countries receiving letters this week from the US president warning of "reciprocal" tariffs from August 1 failing a trade agreement with Washington.

The 25 percent across-the-board levy for Japan is separate from similar charges for cars, steel and aluminium that have already been imposed.

Trump wants to get Japanese firms to manufacture more in the United States and for Tokyo to buy more US goods -- notably gas and oil, cars and rice -- to reduce the $70 billion trade deficit with the Asian powerhouse.

"I have great respect for Japan, they won't take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage," Trump said on Truth Social on June 30.

Rice, though, is small fry in the grand scheme of bilateral business between the countries.

BMI Fitch Solutions said that it accounts for only 0.37 percent of US exports to Japan, and that even doubling that would have a "negligible" effect on overall trade.

"(The) Trump administration seems more concerned with the optics of striking deals than with meaningfully narrowing the US trade deficit," BMI said.

For Japan, doubling imports could be swallowed if only the economic impact is considered.

It could be well worth it if such a concession could reduce or even remove Trump's damaging 25 percent tariff on Japanese autos.

- Lost majority -

But the politics of rice are fraught for Ishiba, whose ruling coalition disastrously lost its majority in lower house elections in October.

Upper house elections on July 20 could see a similar drubbing, which might prompt Ishiba to quit, 10 months after taking the helm of the long-dominant but unloved Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Rice Japan holds a cherished place in Japanese national culture -- samurai reputedly used to be paid in it.

Relying on imports -- currently almost all rice consumed is grown domestically -- would be seen by many as a national humiliation for the country of 124 million people, and risky.

"Culturally, and historically, the Japanese people are all about rice," Shinichi Katayama, the fourth-generation owner of 120-year-old Tokyo rice wholesaler Sumidaya, told AFP.

"I personally welcome having an additional option for Japanese consumers. But I also feel the move (letting in lots of foreign rice) is too early from the standpoint of food security," he said.

"If we become reliant on rice imports, we may face shortages again when something happens."

While Japan already imports rice from the United States, many consumers see foreign, long-grain varieties as being of dubious quality and lacking the requisite stickiness of the homegrown short-grain rice.

Bad memories linger from when Japan suffered a cold summer in 1993 and had to import large volumes of the grain from Thailand.

American rice "tastes awful. It lacks stickiness", said Sueo Matsumoto, 69, who helps families where children have hearing difficulties.

"If they (the Americans) want to export to Japan, they must work at it. They must think about consumer preference," he told AFP in Tokyo.

- No sacrifice -

As a result, Ishiba's government has been at pains to say it won't bend on the issue -- although this may change after the election.

"We have no intention of sacrificing agriculture in future negotiations," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said recently.

"Ishiba is walking a narrow plank, wary of provoking powerful domestic lobbies like rice farmers, while juggling an approval rating that would make aggressive trade moves politically perilous," said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.

The government has already been under fire for the recent skyrocketing of rice prices, which have roughly doubled in 12 months.

Factors include a very hot summer in 2023, panic-buying after a warning of an imminent "megaquake" in 2024, alleged hoarding by some traders, and a surge in rice-hungry tourists.

To help ease the pain, Tokyo is tapping emergency stockpiles, and imports have risen sharply -- led by rice from California -- but these are still tiny compared with domestic production.

"All these problems with rice prices show the LDP's agriculture policy has failed," retiree Yasunari Wakasa, 77, told AFP.

(B.Hartmann--BBZ)