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即使是日本首相安倍身边最为激进的改革派人士多也不愿意去相信，安倍会废除这项称之为减反的政策。这项政策的制订是从一九七一年开始的，是由政府为了减少水稻的种植而出台的相关政策补贴。但是农业生产的大省于十一月二十六号对外宣布，这项政策会于二零一八年停止实施。安倍说种植水稻的农户们可以自己决定想要种植的农业品种。

大米是目前日本非常重要的主食之一，但是产量近些年来有所下降，此次开放水稻市场，并不是效率低下日本农业管理部门转行的结果。但是这一步政策的实施也是非常有必要的且受到欢迎的。减反政策制订的核对心就是为了保护本国的水稻种植户们避免受到价格的冲击。在二零一零年，这项政策出台之后，稻米的种植面积减少了三分之一，而大米的单产量也得到了很好的控制。

NOT even the most ardent reformers around Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, believed that he would dare to scrap the policy, known as gentan, under which the government has paid farmers to reduce rice crops since 1971. But on November 26th the agriculture ministry said the system would be phased out by 2018. Rice growers, said Mr Abe, will be able to produce crops “based on their own management decisions”.

Allowing a free market for rice, the country’s sacred staple food, will not by itself transform Japan’s inefficient agricultural sector, which has declined precipitously in recent years. But it is an unavoidable and welcome first step. The gentan system was originally designed to shield the country’s cosseted farmers from short-term fluctuations in prices. By 2010 the policy kept roughly a third of Japan’s paddy fields out of rice production, costing vast sums each year in compensation to farmers for lost income.

The country’s millions of small rice-growers have thrived on the handout for decades, along with Japan Agriculture (JA), a giant network of local farm co-operatives. Many landowners pocket the government’s money while growing nothing at all. About two-fifths of the land taken out of rice production is left entirely idle. Unused land prompts regular public hand-wringing about the abandonment of the life-giving soil to weeds and rubbish.

Japanese agriculture’s biggest problem is that all but 2% of farms are smaller than five hectares and many comprise just a few fields, a fragmentation preserved by the gentan system and by other regulations. Tiny, often part-time farmers, with few economies of scale, antiquated methods and old equipment hobble the industry. The sticky rice favoured by Japanese consumers ends up costing twice or more what rice does in other countries.

To protect its wildly uncompetitive farmers, Japan has erected one of the world’s highest tariffs: the duty on imported polished rice is 777.7%. Mr Abe’s surprise decision in March to bring Japan into talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free-trade grouping, has brought these duties under pressure. Even though a final deal on TPP is far from certain, the talks are still a powerful force for change.

The phasing out of gentan should spur rice production, allowing prices to fall at last. That in turn should encourage small landowners to hand over their paddies to be farmed by larger operators, says Takeshi Niinami, the government’s chief adviser on the reform. Another of Mr Abe’s plans is to create new agencies in each prefecture to gather farmland from smallholders, consolidate it and lease it in larger chunks to companies. The combination of the two new policies could halve the cost of growing rice from an average of ¥16,000 ($16) a 60kg sack to just ¥8,00本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。