KAMIMOMI, Japan (AP) — In the remote village of Kamimomi in Japan’s western Okayama prefecture, a small group of rice farmers began their most recent harvest in sweltering heat, two weeks sooner than ...

Shinjiro Koizumi, agriculture minister of Japan, eats a rice ball during his visit to a rice farm in Sugito, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. Shinjiro Koizumi, agriculture ...

Sanae Takaichi came to power promising to tame inflation. But she’s boosting the crop’s cost to appease a subsidy-fuelled ...

SHONAI, Japan — This broad coastal plain near the Sea of Japan, blessed with abundant water and rich soil and checkered with rice paddies hued golden yellow in the early spring, is one of the ...

Japan’s population is the oldest in the world, with a third aged over 65, and one in 10 aged over 80, due to a combination of low fertility rates and high life expectancy. This has a direct effect on ...

Whether it’s posting pictures of him eating gyudon (beef bowl) between meetings or holding rice balls at campaign stops, Shinjiro Koizumi has worked hard to portray himself as a regular Tokyoite. The ...

A farmer operates harvester machine on a rice terrace during harvest in Kamimomi village, Okayama prefecture, Japan on Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill) KAMIMOMI, Japan (AP) — In the remote ...