Shinya Fujiki, 49, a candidate of the ruling party LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), won a seat in proportional representation segment of the Upper House election on July 10.
Shinya Fujiki (center) makes “banzai” cheers with his supporters when his win is confirmed. (Kumamoto-shi, Kumamoto prefecture)
He was recommended by a political wing of agricultural cooperative’s (JA’s) organizations named as the National Association of Farmers’ Agricultural Policy Movement Organizations or “Zenkoku-Noseikyo.”
Farmers have been increasingly anxious about problems to be faced in coming years. And worries about radical reform of farm policies are widely prevailing among farmers at rural communities in the country.
During an election campaign, LDP candidate Fujiki asserted his own view on the importance of reflecting opinions of farmers and their JAs into national farm policies as their representative from a grass-roots level. It looks as though a number of rural voters have entrusted him with a task of opposing the radical reform of agricultural policies.
A national election candidate recommended from among leaders of farmers’ organizations by the National Association was successful in winning a seat at the Diet for the second time, following a member of the House of Councilors, Toshio Yamada, elected in 2007, former senior executive director of JA-ZENCHU (Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives).
New Diet member Fujiki is a farmer producing rice and feeding beef cattle in the earthquake-hit prefecture of Kumamoto. He has also a career in an agricultural cooperative movement as the president of JA Kamimashiki in the prefecture.
In the latest Upper House election, LDP scored a considerably larger victory in terms of seats. In some constituencies of rice-producing Tohoku and other regions, however, opposition parties won the seats, which highlights one aspect of the latest election that farm policies of Shinzo Abe’s Administration have not been fully supported by voters in the country.