January 5, 2015
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THE 19TH
ANNUAL
JAPANESE
NEW YEAR
CELEBRATION
Enjoy taiko drumming, mochi-pounding,
and delicious Japanese food! Fun for the whole family!
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TICKETS AT THE DOOR: $5-$12
Free for children under 3!
OKYO — When Japanese pose for
pictures,
instead
of
saying
“Cheese!” some say “Butter!” These
days, butter is more likely cause for
frowning, since it is rationing that comes
to mind.
As the Christmas cake rush approached,
grocery stores limited customers to a
maximum of two packages of butter each.
The government also announced its latest
plan for “emergency imports” to ease
shortages of the spread.
The butter shortfall stems from several
factors, including stressed out dairy cows,
aging farmers, rising costs, and trade and
price restrictions.
The official reason for short supplies of
milk used to make butter is lower output
due to unusually hot weather last summer
in the northern island of Hokkaido,
Japan’s dairy basket. Fresh milk sells for
more per ton than butter, so dairy
producers are said to be giving butter short
shrift and butter sections are often bare on
shelves crammed with various margarines
and other spreads.
But the worsening shortages are also a
symptom of industry protections that limit
farm imports and of deeply entrenched
resistance to a market-opening overhaul.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is struggling to
deliver on reform promises even as his
party won a stronger mandate for his “Abe-
nomics” policies in last month’s election.
Apart from overworked cows and
difficulties growing enough forage to feed
them, dairying is among many Japanese
agricultural
industries
in
decline.
Farmers are retiring without heirs willing
to take over their farms and prices for feed
and fuel have surged, cutting into profits.
Japan had 417,600 dairy farms in 1963.
As of February, it had 18,600 despite
heavy government subsidies.
Japanese farmers, like those in the U.S.
and many other countries, traditionally
have been protected from foreign competi-
tion, both to ensure a degree of food
self-sufficiency for the resource-scarce
island nation and for political reasons.
Despite Abe’s vows to modernize
farming and “drill deep” through the
country’s bedrock of bureaucracy and
vested interests, his government has made
little headway apart from tinkering with
land reforms.
Tariffs on imports of farm produce
average 23 percent. Overall, the govern-
ment pays a subsidy to dairy farmers of
12.8 yen (11 cents) per kilogram for butter
and 15.41 yen (13 cents) per kilogram for
cheese.
Dairy farmers like Shinjiro Ishibashi,
who is raising about 300 head of cattle on
his farm in Chiba, east of Tokyo, count on
the support. Japan’s farm lobby remains a
T
stronghold for the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party, which while talking up
sweeping reforms is also reassuring
farmers it will continue to look after their
interests.
“Mr. Abe says he will preserve our
‘beautiful Japan,’ and I expect him to do
it,” said Ishibashi, alluding to Abe’s
constant praise for Japan’s traditional
farming lifestyle.
Japan’s farm protection policies are one
reason the 12 nations negotiating a U.S.-
led trans-Pacific trade pact have been
unable to reach an agreement. Negotiators
meeting in Washington ended another
year without a consensus.
Among the countries negotiating the
trade pact, Japan has the second largest
food market after the U.S. and foreign
dairy and other farmers are eager for more
access.
But “sacred territory” issues such as
pickup trucks for the Americans and beef,
pork, dairy, sugar, and rice in Japan have
frustrated efforts to reach an overarching
agreement.
A Japanese government study esti-
mated that opening farm markets under
the trade pact could reduce domestic farm
output by about 2.7 trillion yen ($22.5
billion), or more than 40 percent of total
farm, fisheries, and forestry production.
But a report by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) questioned that
figure, saying it does not take into account
issues such as supply constraints in other
countries. The USDA report estimated
that market liberalization for dairy
products could boost Japan’s butter
imports by about half, to about 6 billion
yen (over $50 million).
Japan’s Agriculture and Livestock
Industries Corp. (ALIC), which is overseen
by the farm ministry, buys and sells
products through an open and online
bidding process to help ensure stability of
prices and supplies, in effect subsidizing
loss-making farmers and manufacturers.
The system, meant to ensure stable
supplies, appears to be failing to do that, at
least for butter.
Japan’s raw milk output in the fiscal
year ended in March was 7.45 million tons,
down from an industry peak of just over 8.6
million tons in 1997. Butter consumption
per person has held steady, at about 2
kilograms (4.4 lbs.) for about a decade,
while milk consumption has been falling.
Apart from the emergency imports, four
major local dairy companies were ordered
to increase output of butter for home use
by 30 percent in early December, reducing
drinking milk and cream production, the
farm ministry said.
It said it would do everything possible,
beginning next year, to stabilize supplies.
A victory for Abe in last month’s election
Continued on page 7
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY
Smith Memorial Student
Union (SMSU)
1825 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
For more information, visit www.mochipdx.org
Concertmaster Sarah Kwak
Saturday, January 24 | 7:30 pm
Monday, January 26 | 8 pm
Japan runs short of butter
as dairy farms dwindle
AP Business Writer
MOCHITSUKI
SUNDAY • JANUARY 25 • 11 AM – 4 PM
BUTTER BLUES. A shopper chooses dairy products as the shelf selling butter, right, is almost empty at a
supermarket in Tokyo. Worsening butter shortages are a symptom of deeply entrenched resistance to reforms
that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is struggling to deliver with “Abenomics.” (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
By Elaine Kurtenbach
USHER IN THE YEAR OF THE SHEEP WITH
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Glazunov: Violin Concerto
Mozart: Symphony No. 35, “Haffner”
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