Liberal Japan

From the WSJ:

To further protect the market, Japan resisted rice imports until the Uruguay Round of global trade talks in 1995, when it agreed to start buying some 682,000 tons of foreign rice a year, mostly from the U.S. But the Japanese government, which controls rice sales, doesn’t sell the imported rice on the market. That is because Japan produces more rice than consumers eat. Fearing that cheap foreign rice would further erode prices, it has been storing the foreign rice for years, amassing a huge stockpile. Some of the reserves have been fed to livestock, fermented to make miso paste, and even given away to North Korea as aid. Still, at the end of 2007, Japan had 2.29 million tons of rice in storage — 1.52 million tons of imported rice and 770,000 tons of domestic rice, which the government says is for use in emergencies.

So because of foreign pressure to open up its rice market, the Japanese government at some point decided to buy rice on foreign markets. But this rice was never allowed onto the Japanese market but instead stored in massive warehouses.

That’s just insane. It’s like an x-files episode or something. According to the article Japan now has 2.6 million tons of rice stored most of it as a result of the above agreement, and might now use it in the following way:

Now, Japan says it is finally considering releasing some of the stock to help ease the global food crunch.

Hm. Okay. I guess that would be useful. Still though, it leaves me scratching my head.