The Liberal Democratic Party placed top priority on its 10-year plan to double farmers’ income, while the Democratic Party of Japan pledged to legislate the individual-household income compensation system, according to a survey conducted by the Japan Agricultural News on nine major political parties prior to the Upper House elections scheduled on Sunday, July 21.
The survey asked the parties to list three top priority agricultural policies, and four out of nine major political parties – the People’s Life Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Green Wind party – expressed strong opposition to Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, while the other five parties did not list the TPP as a key issue.
Although farmers have continuously urged the government to withdraw from joining the TPP scheme, the LDP, its coalition partner New Komeito party and the DPJ refrained from mentioning the TPP as their key issues apparently because Japan expects to enter the TPP negotiations in the end of this month and prospects are still unclear.
As for other key policies related to agriculture, the parties put forth various measures to support farmers to stabilize their business and increase their income, amid growing concerns over the aging of farmers, lack of successors and expansion of unused farmlands. However, the parties have not shown specific steps on how to put the measures into practice, including how to secure finances for them.
The LDP, in addition to its 10-year plan, pledged to establish a direct payment system for all farmers who maintain farmland, including not only rice fields but grasslands and orchards. The New Komeito party said it will review the individual household income support system, which is currently funded under a budget provision, and legislate it. Under the system, which was first introduced by the DPJ in 2010 when it was in power, the government gives rice farmers 15,000 yen per 10 ares, regardless of the market prices.
The DPJ, in addition to its pledge to legislate the individual household income support system, listed measures to subsidize dairy farmers and livestock breeders and to facilitate farmers’ expansion of business to processing and distribution.
The People’s Life Party, the SDP and the Green Wind party also placed priority on the legislation and expansion of the income support system. The People’s Life Party specifically mentioned “a bold increase in farmers’ income” as its main pledge, and the Japanese Communist Party suggests its own income support system.
The SDP stressed its stance of protecting the safety and security of food, while the Green Wind party put an emphasis on creating new businesses by utilizing natural resources. The LDP and the Japanese Communist Party also indicated the importance of increasing the national food self-sufficiency rate.
The Japan Restoration Party and Your Party, which are skeptical about the government’s current agricultural policies, pledged to facilitate companies’ entry into agricultural business and revise or phase out the “gentan” policy of reducing rice paddies. Your Party asserted that the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives’ financial services business should be separated from other services. Such radical policies will inevitably arouse opposition and bewilderment among farmers.
(July 3, 2013)