LDP Warns Govt Against Expanding Rice Imports from U.S. in Tariff Negotiations; Important Issue of Securing ‘Food Security’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:56 JST, April 26, 2025

The Liberal Democratic Party on Friday submitted to the agriculture minister a resolution rejecting a stance in Japan-U.S. tariff negotiations that could result in farm and fisheries products being sacrificed to protect industrial products.

The LDP’s Headquarters for Strengthening Japan’s Food Security, chaired by the party’s Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama, and other party committees drew up the resolution.

The resolution is intended to put the brakes on the government’s negotiation plans, which are currently under consideration and include expanding imports of rice produced in the United States.

“Concerns have arisen within the party about the government’s stance in the negotiations on agricultural, forestry and fisheries products,” the resolution stated.

It called for the government to “go into the talks with the firm stance that [Japan] will protect what needs to be protected.”

The resolution also urged the government to make no easy concessions, stating that the ruling party had accepted the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and the Japan-U.S. Trade Agreement “as the results of last-minute negotiations.”

After submitting the resolution, Moriyama told reporters, “This is an extremely important issue in terms of our country’s food security.”

However, the resolution stopped short of seeking agricultural, forestry and fishery products to be excluded from the negotiations.

“The intent is not to call for all of those products to be off the negotiating table,” a former cabinet minister said.

At the party’s headquarters on the day, Itsunori Onodera, chairperson of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, met with Ryosei Akazawa, minister in charge of economic revitalization and Japan’s chief negotiator in the tariff talks. Onodera told Akazawa that Japan “must never make any concessions on rice.”