JAPAN

Rice Farmers to Get Subsidies: The Japanese government will give rice farmers subsidies of $155 million during the fiscal year through March, 1994, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture said. That would nearly triple the subsidies in effect in the fiscal year to March, 1993, the official said. “We don’t have much stock left in government stores this year,” the official said. “We have to encourage Japanese farmers to produce more rice. There is still a lot of land that has the potential to plant rice.” The Asahi Shimbun newspaper termed the increase in rice subsidies a final gesture of generosity on the part of the Liberal Democratic Party to its traditional supporters, the farmers. Japan’s trading partners, especially the United States, have been pressing it to drop its near-total ban on rice imports as a way of advancing global trade talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Japan is facing a shortage of cheap rice used for packaged lunches and processed foods like rice crackers, said Satoshi Shimamoto, senior economist at MMS International. Japanese farmers don’t want to produce cheaper varieties of rice when they can get more money for top-quality rice, he said. However, the amount of increased production the ministry seeks appears small compared to the magnitude of increased subsidies. In fiscal year 1992, Japanese rice farmers produced 10.19 million tons of rice, expected to rise to about 10.21 million tons this fiscal year, an official said.