The Farm Minister resigns in the middle of the rice scandal, but anger remains

Farm minister Taku ETO finally subsided under the growing heat because on May 21st he had resigned from his cabinet post on May 21.

The sudden fall came only days after ETO said that he would not withdraw after he was severely criticized by consumers and farmers because he noticed that he had enough rice to sell at home because he had received him from his followers.

However, the trouble of the public is not decreased, and the opposition parties will probably always hammer on the subject.

The resignation is a blow for the competitive Ishiba administration, with voters in the Prefecture of Miyazaki to be heard according to rice farmers across the country and ETOS.

Expert face came quickly

The 64 -year -old ETO visited the prime minister's office on the morning of May 21 and took his resignation to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

“As a responsible minister, I made extremely inappropriate comments at a time when people have great difficulties due to rising travel prices,” Eto then told reporters. “I would like to offer my sincere apologies.”

Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, a former Minister of Environment, is expected to be appointed to follow ETO.

ETO, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party lower house, initially expressed his intention to remain in his post despite the fire storm.

When asked by reporters, why he finally decided to step down, he said: “We have to reduce the price from now on at all costs. To do this, the trust of the public is essential. When I have undermined this trust, I decided that it was in the best interest of the people I close back.”

ETO said he made the decision after a meeting of the upper house of the upper house after a meeting.

“When I left the committee and got into my car, I thought, 'this is the last time',” he said.

Eto was elected to the lower house from the Prefecture of Prefecture Miyazaki for the first time in 2003, after serving as the adjutant of his father Takami Eto, who was a member of the LDP Unit.

ETO was currently served as Minister of Farm in his eighth term in 2019 and was appointed again in autumn 2024 as part of the second Ishiba cabinet.

Ishiba gives responsibility

After the meeting of the Prime Minister's office, Ishiba said reporters that ETO wanted to step down because this situation would hinder the implementation of agricultural policy and that he was accepting it.

“All of this is my responsibility as the appointment,” said the Prime Minister. “I have to accept criticism.”

Initially, Ishiba decided to keep ETO in his post.

However, the public outcry did not remain, and when the opposition parties took a stronger attitude, Ishiba decided that the fall of the minister was inevitable according to the sources.

This is the first resignation of a cabinet minister due to problematic comments, since the Ishiba administration started in October 2024.

When asked how he would fulfill his own responsibility, Ishiba said: “I have the feeling that the high travel prize is not a temporary phenomenon, but a structural one. We will discuss the problem thoroughly again, and if the price falls temporarily, this is not enough.

Then Ishiba met with Koizumi and found out about his appointment as Minister of Farm.

Koizumi told reporters: “I will do my best to react quickly to the rising prices of rice, which the public is most concerned about.”

Farmers disgusted, require changes in politics

Even after the resignation of ETO hidden rice farmers and voters, their disgust and disappointment are not.

Takashi Seki, 73, a rice builder in Uonuma, Prefecture Niigata, one of the leading rice regions of Japan, dismissed the news and said: “It is only natural that he should step down.”

Regarding ETOS, statement that he never bought Rice, Seki said that he was “the difficulties of consumers who suffer from high prices, not the problems of farmers who had to endure low prices so far.”

Seki builds Koshihikari and other types of rice on about 90 hectares.

Rising production costs, including an increase in fertilizer and fuel costs by 50 percent in the past five years, have become a burden on his business.

The strong increase in travel prices since last year is a tailwind that will lead to an increased income for SEKI, but he said: “I can't just be happy about it.”

With the increasing retail prices in shops, consumers switch to bread, pasta and foreign rice.

Seki was annoyed that “the emigration of rice is continued”.

Seki calls on ETO's successor to “stabilize the travel prices as soon as possible” and hopes to see a shift to agricultural politics that benefits farmers.

Yohei Koizumi, 23, a part -time maker in Nobeoka, Prefecture Miyazaki, Etos Haus Wektreis, said: “We cannot simply leave ETO and be finished with it.”

The young farmer also runs a non -profit organization that supports children who are unable to attend school, and he believes that “it is becoming increasingly difficult to get rice from day to day”.

He hopes that the government will “support those who grow their own food as an entrepreneur” and hopes that this problem will be an opportunity for everyone to investigate agricultural policy again.

Opposition parties united

With the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly and the top domestic elections this summer, ETOS rice flap will influence the assets of the Ishiba administration.

Five opposition parties – the constitutional democratic party of Japan, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), the Democratic Party for the People, Reiwa Shinengumi and the Japanese Communist Party – agreed on May 20 that they were to displace Ishiba from his post.

It was expected that you would submit a non-confidence application against ETO, although a non-confidence application against Cabinet Minister is not legally binding.

However, since the Ishiba administration is a government party of the minorities, there is a strong way of adoption that would seriously affect the operations of nutrition if the opposition parties submit a non-trust.

Therefore, Ishiba and high-ranking LDP officials have decided to displace ETO from the post office.

Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opponent CDP, said that Etos “resigns in a sense”, what can be expected “, and” rather Ishiba has to be held accountable “.

Noda told reporters: “(Ishiba) is always a movement too late. His decisions are often one or two steps too late.”

Seiji Mahara, co-chair of Nippon Ishin, also criticized Ishiba's dealings with the situation and said that his attitude changed several times.

“I have to say that his name is not Shigeru Ishiba, but 'Bureru' (flip-flop) Ishiba,” said Maehara.

Akira Koike, General Secretary of the JCP, also criticized Ishiba's decision as “too late”.

“The government ignores the fact that people have built up like magma,” said Koike. “We are (ishibas) responsibility for the appointment (from ETO) and for the delay of his resignation.”

The Junior Coalition partner of the LDP is concerned about the impact on the upcoming elections.

Tetsuo Saito, head of Komeito, told reporters: “The resignation of (ETO) is a very serious matter. It will be a big blow to the administration. We cannot deny the impact on the upcoming metropolese assembly in Tokyo and the elections of the upper house.”

The electoral groups of the hometown disappointed

The 86 -year -old Matsuo Shimada, who acts as chairman of the ETO support association, said that many of his supporters were “amazed” at the minister's comments.

“They weren't the right words as a minister, so he has to take responsibility,” said Shimada.

A high -ranking officer of the Saga Prefectural Chapter of the LDP, in which ETO made remarked on May 18 in a political fundraiser in Saga, said:

The official added: “It is a shame because he was an expert in agricultural politics, but he sowed the seeds himself.”

A man in Kadogawa Town in the 1970s, where ETO comes, said that the Miyazaki No. 2 district was an area with many farmers, and most of the ETO supporters are farmers.

“I don't understand what he intended with his comments,” he said angry. “As a citizen of prefecture, I am very embarrassed as a voter in this district.”

An independent woman in the fifties in Miyazaki said: “Some people can get rice if they live in Miyazaki, but from the perspective of those who have to buy rice who costs more than $ 4,000 yen ($ 28) for five kilograms, this was a comment that a minister did not make.”

She added: “I think he was shown from above to step back and had to do so in preparation for the upper house elections in summer.”

Even with a new minister “it will not be easy to restore the image of the (Ishiba government),” she said.

The official of the Saga Prefectural Chapter of the LDP said only two months with the elections of the top house: “I hope that there will be no second or third resignation under the leadership of the Prime Minister.”