Japanese minister resigns after a bad rice joke-Diepresse.com

The Japanese Minister of Agriculture Taku ETO has submitted his resignation after controversial statements about gifted rice. While the people in Japan had to deal with rising travel prices, he had made an « extremely inappropriate remark », he justified his resignation and apologized.

At an event at the weekend, ETO said that he did not have to buy a rice, because his supporters gave him so much that he could sell him. He later rowed back and said that it was a joke. However, his statements made outrage among the population and in the opposition.

Reinaries have doubled

Due to bottlenecks, according to Kyodo, the price for rice has doubled within last year. The reason for this are, among other things, bad harvests due to high temperatures last summer. In order to counteract the price increase, the government has released more than 300,000 tons of rice from emergency stocks.

He came to the conclusion that it was not appropriate to remain at the head of the ministry in such a « critical phase for the travel prices », said Eto reports. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba appointed former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi as the successor.