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On February 10, DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa participated in an “Agricultural Issues Roundtable” with fourteen representatives of the national direct agricultural sales association, which has been formed by producers engaged in direct selling of farm produce. Ozawa enthusiastically expounded his idea for “ideal homelands”, which involves rejuvenating the regions to provide stable livelihoods and creating local communities where young people are able to make a living.
At the start of the discussion, the DPJ’s Next Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Nobutaka Tsutsui, outlined the party’s policies for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, including efforts toward realizing 100% food self-sufficiency for Japan; the introduction of an individual household income support system for farmers; efforts to increase food self-sufficiency by increasing the share of safe and reliable domestic food products; and the DPJ’s “Vision for Transforming Rural Communities into Sixth Sector Industry Producers” (Sixth sector=combination of primary, secondary and tertiary industries”).
The representatives of direct farm sales organization from various regions expressed a whole various of opinions, including their hopes for a third agricultural land reform; criticism of the LDP’s agricultural policies in general as having the same impact as suffering a direct hit from an earthquake, and of its farm income stabilization programme in particular as being damaging to the existence of small local communities; as well as calls for the DPJ to protect Japanese agriculture and implement their policy pledges without flinching should they take power. The representatives also expressed concern about the lack of successors to carry on their businesses.
In response to these comments, Ozawa emphasized that it was vital to engage in the rejuvenation and restoration of local communities as a whole, and as such it was first essential to engage in decentralization in the true sense of the word and aim to create a system where the regions can decide regional affairs for themselves. He explained that the meaning of the DPJ’s policy to achieve 100% food self-sufficiency was to aim to produce domestically the 2000 kilocalories per day of food necessary to sustain each adult member of the population. He said that Japan was perfectly capable of achieving such a goal.
Ozawa also referred to the LDP’s farm income stabilization policy, saying, “Once there is a generation change, there will be a movement toward large-scale agricultural production. I am totally opposed to this.” He also criticised the governing party’s policy of providing government subsidies as an incentive to farmers to reduce acreage under production as “a ridiculous policy measure.”
Furthermore, Ozawa went on to say, “Dual-income farmers rooted in their local community. That is the secret to successful generation change.” He recounted his ideal for the Japanese ancestral homelands, in which young people would live at home, making a living from sources other than agriculture with a view to taking over the family farm in future, and stressed the need to secure workplaces for the younger generation in the regions.
Ozawa also cited the example of the United Kingdom, which during its imperial expansion had deliberately decreased domestic food self-sufficiency and relied on produce imported from its colonies, but had later found that this method had negatively affected the nation, and now had a very high food self-sufficiency ratio. He said, “Of course there is a national security aspect to this, but it is also important both economically and politically to preserve a certain level of food self-sufficiency as a nation.”
He added, “If the DPJ take power, it will not be possible for us to implement income support and the like the very next day, but we will create such systems.”
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