When Genki Sakurai began working for his family’s rice farm 17 years ago, there were more than a dozen rice farmers in his neighborhood in the city of Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture. Now, he says, only three remain.
“Rice producers don’t want to pass down an unprofitable business to their children,” says the 38-year-old Sakurai, the ninth-generation owner of a 300-year-old rice farm cultivating 24 hectares of the nationally recognized Koshihikari brand of rice.
“Rice prices were too low and farmers operate at a loss,” he continues. “So parents tell their children, ‘You’re better off becoming an office worker.’”
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