Early voting starts for Japan's Upper House election
Official campaigning for the election kicked off on Thursday. A total of 522 people are running in the election -- either those competing in electoral districts or running under the proportional representation system. Key election issues include how to tackle rising prices and the future of social security.
People who may not be able to cast their ballots on election day due to travel, work or other reasons are eligible to vote early.
Polling stations set up by municipalities are basically open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The number of early voters has been increasing since the system was introduced in 2003. In the previous Upper House election in 2022, 35.9 percent of voters, or about 19.6 million people, cast early ballots.
The Internal Affairs Ministry says the venues for polling stations include university campuses, shopping centers and railway stations to encourage more people to cast their ballots.
The ministry says some polling stations are opening earlier than 8:30 a.m. or closing later than 8 p.m. for the convenience of voters who work on weekdays.
Early voting will continue through July 19, the day before the election.
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Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Japan Times
In reversal, Japan now wants rice farmers to produce more. Will it work?
For more than half a century, the Japanese government has encouraged rice farmers to grow less of the crop so that prices of the national staple grain remained relatively high and steady. Now, under an ambitious agricultural policy announced this year, Tokyo is preparing for a reversal, envisaging a future of bountiful output that would secure the country's food security without sending prices into freefall and hurting its politically influential farmers. The new direction has taken on an unexpected urgency as Japan grapples with a shortage of the all-important staple, which has prompted a historic spike in prices, a flood of imports, and interest from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has renewed pressure on Japan to buy American rice as part of the allies' elusive trade deal. It is a policy that many farmers like Kazuhachi Hosaka welcome in principle, but with trepidation because questions over how it would work in practice remain unanswered. The government is aiming to complete a roadmap by the middle of next year. Stay updated on Japan's rice crisis. Quality journalism is more crucial than ever. Help us get the story right. For a limited time, we're offering a discounted subscription plan. Unlimited access US$30 US$18 /mo FOREVER subscribe NOW "We'd want the government to make sure there's some kind of a safety net for producers," Hosaka said at his farm in Niigata Prefecture. "It's easy enough to switch rice for feed or processed foods to staple rice. But tilling land for new paddies or switching from wheat or soybeans would require labor, machinery and all kinds of investments." This year, Hosaka allocated all but 10 hectares of his 180-hectare land for staple rice, reducing feed-use rice by 20 hectares given the attractive prices. But he worries that prices could plunge if Japan's overall production goes unchecked under the new policy, set to be implemented from the 2027 crop year. When rice turned into a luxury item this year, consumers fumed and policymakers — facing imminent elections — worried. | Reuters "I do feel conflicted," Hosaka said about the doubling of retail rice prices to above ¥4,000 ($27.80) for a 5 kilogram bag this year in what has turned into a national crisis. "It's important that rice prices settle at levels acceptable to both producers and consumers," he said. Hosaka hopes prices stabilize around ¥3,000 to ¥3,500 — a level Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also hopes would be palatable for voters. Supermarket prices fell for a fifth straight week, to ¥3,801 in the seven days to June 22, but were still 70% higher than the same period last year. For Japanese people, rice is more than just a staple food. Cultivated in the country for more than 2,000 years, rice is considered sacred in the indigenous Shinto religion and is deeply ingrained in local tradition and culture. People are famously proud of the short-grain japonica variety, protecting the market with trade barriers. So when rice turned into a luxury item this year, consumers fumed and policymakers — facing imminent elections — worried. With an eye on voters ahead of an Upper House election on July 20, the government has been releasing emergency rice from its stockpile to sell for about ¥2,000 per 5 kg. Farmers — also traditionally an important voting bloc for Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party — were told it was a dire but necessary move to protect Japan's food security and prevent consumers from switching permanently away from homegrown rice. But for most of the past 50 years, Japan has poured its energy into doing the opposite: providing subsidies to farmers to grow crops other than staple rice so as to prevent oversupply and a fall in prices. That system backfired last year when the farm ministry misread supply from the heat-damaged 2023 harvest, resulting in a severe shortage in August. The ensuing surge in prices made Japan an anomaly against a fall in global prices, and exposed the risks of its approach. The new policy, if successful, would prevent a recurrence by allocating 350,000 tons of rice for export in 2030 — an eightfold jump from 45,000 tons last year — that could be redirected to the domestic market in the event of a shortage, the government says. Some agricultural experts say the policy is unrealistic. The idea of selling expensive Japanese rice abroad is counterintuitive, especially when even Japan is importing record amounts of the grain despite the ¥341 per kg levy that had previously priced foreign products out of the market. Kazuhachi Hosaka washes his hands in an irrigation canal at his farm in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, on June 19. | Reuters Japanese have also acquired a taste for U.S. calrose rice, while imports from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam have also been popular with businesses and cost-conscious consumers. "Expensive rice might sell to niche markets, but getting that up to 350,000 tons would require price competitiveness, and there's a long way for that," said Kazunuki Ohizumi, professor emeritus at Miyagi University and an expert on agricultural management. The government aims to provide some form of support but also expects farmers to make their own efforts to consolidate, and make use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to lower production costs. Meanwhile, Hosaka said, prices of fertilizers, pesticides and fuel have shot up, sending production costs through the roof. "It's tough," he said. "The government has released quite a bit of stockpiled rice, so I'm very worried about prices falling even further."
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
Beijing braces for U.S. trade deals that aim to shut out China
The trade truce between Washington and Beijing may be holding for now, but China is increasingly wary about what's happening elsewhere: U.S. efforts to forge deals that could isolate Chinese firms from global supply chains. Ahead of a July 9 deadline, U.S. officials are deep in talks with major trading partners in Asia and Europe, pushing for new agreements that would include restrictions on Chinese content, or secure commitments to counter what Washington sees as China's unfair trade practices. In the first such deal, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a tiered tariff agreement with Vietnam. Exports to the United States from the Southeast Asian nation will be charged a 20% rate, Trump said in a social media post, with 40% levied on any goods deemed to be transshipped through the country. That will hit products with components from China and possibly other nations, which are routed through Vietnam or subject to only minimal final assembly before being exported to the U.S. The approach mirrors provisions in an existing U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Although Trump shared the broad contours of the agreement, the White House has not yet released further details, and some of the agreement could be in development, so it's unknown yet how damaging this could be for China's growing exports to Vietnam. China's Ministry of Commerce didn't respond immediately to a request for comment. India, another nation seen as close to a deal, has also been negotiating over "rules of origin.' Washington wants at least 60% of a product's value added locally to qualify as "Made in India' and benefit from the deal, it was previously reported. India has pushed to bring that down to around 35%, according to the report. "Asia's dilemma when it comes to Trump's trade war is all about dependence on U.S. final demand while relying heavily on China's value added in domestic production,' Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at Natixis, said in a recent report, adding that Vietnam, Cambodia and Taiwan were among the most exposed. China, a larger trade partner than the U.S. for most Asian economies, has warned of consequences if its interests are threatened, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi is likely to raise that again on his visit to Europe this week for talks in Belgium, Germany and France. "China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of Chinese interests in exchange for so-called tariff reductions,' the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Saturday, repeating earlier warnings. "If this happens, China will never accept it and will resolutely counter it to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.' The Vietnam deal risks provoking retaliatory steps from China, according to Bloomberg Economics. "Beijing has made clear that it would respond to deals that came at the expense of Chinese interests and the decision to agree to a higher tariff on goods deemed to be 'transshipped' through Vietnam may fall in that category,' Bloomberg's Rana Sajedi wrote in a research note. Trump's 90-day pause on what he called "reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of America's trading partners ends on July 9. Unless those countries reach trade deals with the U.S., they could potentially face much higher tariffs. Some governments are making moves to stay on the right side of Washington. Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea have all put in place measures to stop goods from being rerouted through their countries to the U.S. since Trump's tariffs were unveiled in April. South Korean customs announced a crackdown on transshipments, citing a rise in the practice. Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te also flagged the issue and followed up with new rules requiring all U.S.-bound exports to carry a legal declaration they were made on the island. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Brussels on Wednesday | Bloomberg Another concern for Beijing is whether the U.S. could convince others to impose or tighten export controls on high-tech equipment, which would further hamper Chinese efforts to buy the tools it needs to produce advanced semiconductors. Taiwan in June added Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. to its so-called entity list, barring Taiwanese firms from doing business with them without government approval. The pressure isn't limited to Asia. Europe, too, finds itself in a delicate position. The EU is China's largest export destination for electric vehicles, and investment from Chinese firms into the bloc plus the U.K. hit €10 billion ($12 billion) last year, according to recent research from Rhodium Group. Yet trade tensions are rising. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently accused Beijing of "weaponizing' rare earths and magnets and warned of the risks posed by Chinese overcapacity. Beijing is particularly concerned that the EU might sign up to provisions similar to those in the U.K.'s deal with the U.S., which included commitments around supply chain security, export controls, and ownership rules in sectors like steel, aluminum and pharmaceuticals. While the language did not name China, Beijing criticized the agreement in a rare public statement, interpreting it as a direct challenge, the Financial Times reported. "China is clearly worried that the EU will accept the same wording as the U.K. did on export controls,' said Joerg Wuttke, a partner at the Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington and former president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. "They are pushing the EU not to do this, and the U.S. is pushing the EU to do it.' Brussels and Washington are aiming to reach some form of an agreement before July 9, when Washington is set to impose a 50% tariff on nearly all EU products. With European exports to the U.S. worth more than double the amount to China, the bloc sees Washington as the more important partner, giving the U.S. leverage in the talks. China's weekend statement is "obviously aimed entirely at Brussels,' said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels, who was recently in Beijing for meetings ahead of an EU-China summit this month. "China is concerned what the EU might agree with the U.S.' The long-term risk for Beijing is that these efforts coalesce into a broader shift — not just a U.S.-led campaign to curb Chinese exports, but a reshaping of global trade around "trusted' supply chains, with China increasingly on the outside. In a visit to Southeast Asia earlier this year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged the region to stand together as an "Asian family,' warning against trade fragmentation. Beijing has often responded to actions it opposes with targeted trade measures. When the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles last year, China launched antidumping probes into European brandy, dairy and pork. It halted Japanese seafood imports in 2023 after Group of Seven meetings in Japan were seen as critical of China. A spat with Australia in 2020 led to trade restrictions on billions of dollars' worth of goods, including lobsters, wine and barley. "If some agreements explicitly list China as a target and show that some countries are cooperating or collaborating with the U.S. to 'contain China,' then China will definitely respond,' said Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a former adviser to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.
The Mainichi
6 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Japan PM counters Trump's view on rice imports ahead of election
TOKYO 8Kyodo) -- Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday pushed back against U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that Japan is not importing U.S. rice, saying the misconception should be corrected. Ishiba's comment, made during a meeting with farmers on the second day of campaigning for a nationwide parliamentary election, followed his remark the previous day that Trump may be misinformed about Japan's imports of rice and cars from the United States. Ishiba, who leads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has traditionally enjoyed support from agricultural groups, reiterated that his government will not compromise national interests to reach a tariff deal with the United States. "We have been importing rice from California," Ishiba said at the meeting in Fukushima Prefecture, one of the areas known for rice-growing in northeastern Japan. "We must make sure that this point is clearly understood" by the U.S. side, he said. Japan-U.S. ministerial talks aimed at finding common ground on tariffs appear to have hit a snag, with Trump in recent days voicing complaints about his country's trade with Japan. Japan "won't take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage," Trump said in a recent social media post. Trump has also threatened to raise duties on imports from Japan and other countries ahead of the expiration next Wednesday of a reprieve from so-called reciprocal tariffs. Ishiba failed to reach an agreement with Trump during their mid-June summit, but he has maintained that Japan is in no hurry. Still, Ishiba said Thursday that the bilateral talks have been "making progress steadily and certainly," though he declined to say how close the longtime allies are to a potential deal. Soaring rice prices, driven largely by a poor harvest, have emerged as a key issue for major political parties ahead of the July 20 House of Councillors election, with opposition leaders criticizing the government's response as ineffective. After roughly doubling from a year earlier, rice prices have begun to decline in recent days. Government data released Friday showed the average retail price of rice was 3,691 yen ($26) per 5 kilograms in the week ended Sunday, down 57 yen from the previous week. The decline is partly due to the government selling rice from its emergency reserves to retailers in an effort to bring down prices. In the run-up to the high-stakes election that could determine Ishiba's political future, he has pledged to boost domestic rice production, marking a departure from Japan's long-standing policy of controlling overall output. "As an independent nation, we cannot allow rice cultivation to decline because of increased imports," Ishiba said in the Fukushima meeting.
