Japan Press Weekly

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2009 March 11 - 17 [AGRICULTURE]

Government advisor calls for agricultural deregulation

Japanese Communist Party representative Kami Tomoko revealed that a ministerial panel on agricultural policy reform has a staunch advocate for deregulation of Japan’s agriculture as an adviser.

Kami on March 10 used her question-time at the March 10 House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting to point out that it is inappropriate to appoint Oizumi Ikkan, professor at Miyagi University Graduate School, as the panel’s adviser because of his call for agriculture to be based on market forces. She said that Oizumi is insisting on the need for “a sweeping reform of agricultural policies that should not be restricted by the existing conditions, including a major shakeup of farmers through a drastic revision of qualification criteria for possessing farmland and lifting restrictions on entry into the agricultural sector.”

Oizumi also helped the Japan Forum on International Relations, a private think tank, to compile an agricultural-related proposal. Published in January, it proposed the establishment of about 10,000 business firms to run 100-hectare farmland operations as well as calling on the government to provide subsidies to encourage farmers to give up their farms so that farmland can be consolidated for the new agribusinesses.

In response to Kami question asking if the government was aware of Oizumi’s proposal before it decided to include him as an advisor to the cabinet group, Agriculture Minister Ishiba Shigeru said, “Of course we are fully aware of his position. There are many opinions and some citizens are supportive of his.”

Kami said that Oizumi’s position is far removed even from the government position, indicated in the Agricultural Ministry’s mid-term report on an international framework in accordance with the new food situation, which was issued in February. “Agricultural reform should not be contrary to what the people really demand,” she stressed.