Agriculture minister Taku Eto is facing criticism for making insensitive remarks about rice at a time when prices for the staple grain have doubled over the past year.
“I have never bought rice. My supporters give me so much rice that, in the food pantry of my house, I have enough to sell it,” Eto reportedly said at a fundraising party of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Saga Prefecture on Sunday.
His remarks were first reported in the Saga Shimbun, a local newspaper.
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