Farm minister Taku Eto finally caved under the increasing heat for making light of soaring rice prices and shortages, resigning from his Cabinet post on May 21. 

The sudden fall came only days after Eto said he would not step down after coming under heavy criticism from consumers and farmers for remarking that he had enough rice to sell at home because he had received it from his supporters.

However, the public's anger has not subsided, and the opposition parties will likely keep hammering away at the issue.

The resignation is a blow to the embattled Ishiba administration, with the reverberations heard loudly from the capital to rice farmers across the nation and Eto's constituents in Miyazaki Prefecture.

ABOUT-FACE CAME QUICKLY

Eto, 64, visited the prime minister’s office on the morning of May 21 and submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

“As the minister in charge, I made extremely inappropriate remarks at a time when the people are experiencing great hardship due to rising rice prices,” Eto told reporters afterward. “I would like to offer my sincerest apologies.”

Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, a former environment minister, is expected to be appointed to succeed Eto.

Eto, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, had initially expressed his intention to stay in his post despite the firestorm of criticism.

When asked by reporters why he eventually decided to resign, he said: “We must lower the price of rice from now on at any cost. To do so, the trust of the public is essential. If I have undermined that trust, I have decided that it is in the best interest of the people that I step down.”

Eto said he made the decision after a meeting of the agriculture and fisheries committee of the Upper House on the previous day.

“When I left the committee room and got into my car, I thought, ‘This is the last time,’” he said.

Eto was first elected to the Lower House in 2003 from Miyazaki Prefecture’s No. 2 district after serving as an aide to his father, Takami Eto, who was an LDP Lower House member.

Currently in his eighth term, Eto served as the farm minister in 2019, and was again appointed to the position in fall 2024 under the second Ishiba Cabinet.

ISHIBA ADMITS RESPONSIBILITY

After the meeting at the prime minister's office, Ishiba told reporters that Eto wanted to resign because if this situation continued, it would hinder the implementation of agricultural policy, and that he accepted it.

“All of this is my responsibility as the appointing authority,” the prime minister said. “I must accept any criticism.”

Initially after the controversy arose, Ishiba decided to keep Eto in his post.

However, the public outcry did not subside, and with opposition parties taking a stronger stance, Ishiba decided that the minister’s ouster was inevitable, according to sources.

This is the first resignation of a Cabinet minister due to problematic remarks since the Ishiba administration took office in October 2024.

When asked how he would fulfill his own responsibility, Ishiba said, “I have a feeling that the high price of rice is not a temporary phenomenon, but a structural one. We will discuss the issue thoroughly again, and if the price goes down temporarily, that is not enough. I believe it is my responsibility to make fundamental changes in how to prevent this from happening again.”

Afterward, Ishiba met with Koizumi and informed of his appointment as farm minister.

Koizumi told reporters, “I will do my utmost to speedily respond to the rising prices of rice, which the public is most anxious about.”

FARMERS DISGUSTED, DEMAND CHANGE IN POLICY

Even after Eto’s resignation, rice farmers and voters were not hiding their disgust and disappointment.

Takashi Seki, 73, a rice farmer in Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, one of Japan’s leading rice-producing regions, dismissed the news, saying, “It’s only natural that he should resign.”

Regarding Eto’s statement that he has never bought rice, Seki said he "does not understand the hardships of consumers suffering from high prices, nor the troubles of farmers who have had to endure low prices until now.”

Seki grows Koshihikari and other varieties of rice on about 90 hectares.

Rising production costs, including a 50 percent increase in fertilizer and fuel costs over the past five years, have become a burden on his business.

The sharp rise in rice prices since last year is a tailwind that will lead to increased income for Seki, but he said, “I can’t just be happy about it.”

With the soaring retail prices in stores, consumers are switching to bread, pasta and foreign-grown rice.

Seki fretted that “the shift away from domestically produced rice will continue.”

Seki urges Eto’s successor to “stabilize rice prices as soon as possible” and hopes to see a shift toward an agricultural policy that benefits farmers.

Yohei Koizumi, 23, a part-time farmer in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture, Eto’s home constituency, said, “We cannot just let Eto quit and be done with it.”

The young farmer also runs a nonprofit organization that supports children who are unable to attend school, and he feels that “it is becoming more and more difficult to obtain rice by the day.”

He hopes that the government will “support those who grow their own food as entrepreneurs” and also hopes that this issue will be an opportunity for everyone to re-examine agricultural policy.

OPPOSITION PARTIES UNITED

With the Tokyo metropolitan assembly and Upper House elections looming this summer, Eto's rice flap will impact the Ishiba administration's fortunes. 

Five opposition parties—the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), the Democratic Party for the People, Reiwa Shinsengumi, and the Japanese Communist Party—all agreed on May 20 to ask Ishiba to oust Eto from his post.

They were expected to submit a no-confidence motion against Eto although a no-confidence motion against Cabinet ministers is not legally binding.

However, since the Ishiba administration is a minority ruling party, if the opposition parties submit a no-confidence motion to the Diet, there is a strong possibility of passage, which would seriously impede the Diet's operations.

Therefore, Ishiba and high-ranking LDP officials decided to oust Eto from the post.

Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition CDP, said that Eto’s resignation is “in a sense, what is to be expected,” and “Rather, Ishiba must be held accountable.”

Noda told reporters, “(Ishiba) is always one move too late. His decisions are often a step or two late.”

Seiji Maehara, co-chair of Nippon Ishin, also criticized Ishiba’s handling of the situation, saying that his stance changed several times.

“I must say that his name is not Shigeru Ishiba, but 'Bureru' (flip-flop) Ishiba,” Maehara said.

Akira Koike, secretary-general of the JCP, also criticized Ishiba’s decision as coming “too late.”

“The government is disregarding the fact that the people’s anger has been building up like magma,” Koike said. “We will thoroughly pursue (Ishiba’s) responsibility for the appointment (of Eto) and for delaying his resignation.”

The LDP’s junior coalition partner is concerned about the impact on the upcoming elections.

Tetsuo Saito, leader of Komeito, told reporters, “The resignation of (Eto) is a very serious matter. It will be a major blow to the administration. We cannot deny the impact on the forthcoming Tokyo metropolitan assembly and Upper House elections.”

HOMETOWN CONSTITUENTS DISAPPOINTED

Matsuo Shimada, 86, who serves as the chairman of Eto’s supporters’ association, said that many of his supporters were “astonished” by the minister’s remarks.

“Those were not the right words to say as a minister, so he has to take responsibility,” Shimada said.

A senior official of the LDP’s Saga prefectural chapter, where Eto made the remark on May 18 at a political fund-raising party in Saga, said, “(Eto) has drawn the public’s ire, so his resignation was inevitable.”

The official added, “It is a shame, because he was an expert in agricultural policy, but he sowed the seeds himself.”

A man in his 70s in Kadogawa town, where Eto is from, said the Miyazaki No. 2 district is an area with many farmers, and most of Eto's supporters are farmers.

"I don't understand what he intended with his remarks," he said angrily. "I am very embarassed as a citizen of the prefecture and as a voter in this district."

A self-employed woman in her 50s in Miyazaki said, “Some people may receive rice if they live in Miyazaki, but from the perspective of those who have to buy rice that costs more than 4,000 yen ($28) for five kilograms, it was a comment that a minister should not have made.”

She added, “I think he was told from the top to resign and forced to do so in preparation for the Upper House election in the summer.”

Even with a new minister, “it will not be easy to restore the (Ishiba administration's) image,” she said.

The LDP’s Saga prefectural chapter official said with the Upper House election just two months away, “I hope that under the prime minister’s leadership, there will not be a second or third resignation.”