I’m curious if you’ve ever come across a Japanese story involving sticky rice, where farmers are treated exceptionally well by the government. Additionally, do you believe the details discussed in the story hold any truth, despite it potentially being fictional?
The story goes somewhat like:
>The most popular type of rice in Japan is called ‘Sticky Rice’. It’s named so because the grains stick together.
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>I used to think that Japanese people loved Sticky Rice because it’s easy to eat with chopsticks. But I personally didn’t like it much. Interestingly, the price of this special rice, produced by Japanese farmers, is the highest in the market.
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>After buying different types of rice from the market a few times, I realized that if Japanese people didn’t produce this rice themselves and imported it from another country, its price would be much lower. Intrigued, I asked my supervisor, Professor Kamijima, about it.
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>Speaker: “Why don’t you import this rice from abroad? It would be much cheaper!”
Kamijima: “That might be true.”
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>S: “So why not?”
K: “The government intentionally buys this rice at a higher price from farmers.”
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>S: “Why?”
K: “To ensure their survival.”
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>S: “What do you mean?”
K: “If farmers don’t get a good price for their rice, will they continue farming? Won’t they change their professions?”
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>S: “So, the government buys rice at such high prices to support the farmers?”
K: “Exactly. We haven’t forgotten about the Second World War. Japan is an island nation. If another war breaks out and enemies surround us, what will happen then?”
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>S: “I don’t understand.”
K: “Will we be able to import food from outside? Will we eat Toyota cars then? If farmers don’t survive, will we survive?”
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>I was silent for a long time after hearing Kamijima’s words. I realized that we are unknowingly planning to kill our country’s farmers year after year by not giving them a fair price for their crops!
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>It’s worth mentioning that the Japanese government destroys the rice they have at the end of the year to buy more rice from farmers. To keep farmers alive.
I’m simply curious about the authenticity of this story or similar ones. It occasionally surfaces on social networking sites used by my fellow countrymen.
by Nil-Coder