October 25, 2018

The Japan Agricultural News on October 24 published its opinion poll results showing that 73% of the respondents to the poll do not support the Abe government’s agricultural policy. The daily newspaper polled its registered monitors, including farmers and other persons in agricultural and agriculture-related industries.

The Abe government has promoted what it describes as an “aggressive agricultural policy” and has cut down on its support for small- and medium-sized farmers. In addition, the government seeks to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement while giving in to the U.S. pressure to start negotiations for a Japan-U.S. free trade agreement.

In the survey, the non-support rating for Abe’s farm policy went up to 73% by 2.8 percentage points from the previous survey in April. Concerning the reason for this, the newspaper pointed out that the respondents became less supportive of Abe because the prime minister in the cabinet reshuffle earlier this month reappointed ministers who promoted free trade and Abe’s agricultural policies in a top-down manner.

The same survey found that 70% of the respondents do not support Abe’s decision to begin talks on a new trade deal with the Trump administration. The Abe Cabinet’s approval rating stood at 37%

Past related articles:
> Japan signs EPA with EU amid farmers’ opposition [July 18, 2018]
> Abe accepts Trump’s demand for trade talks leading to FTA [April 20, 2018]