The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which Japan endeavors to join, continues to be controversial, though most people in Japan only have knowledge about the broadest arguments. If Japan joins TPP, it's the end of Japanese agriculture; if it doesn't, Japan will not have access to one of the biggest markets in the world.

Several recent articles in the Asahi Shimbun at least give some idea of what rice farmers stand to lose or gain from the agreement. Two farmers are profiled, one in Fukui Prefecture, the other in Aomori prefecture. The Fukui farmer works a one-hectare paddy that he inherited from his father about 15 years ago. The paddy yields about 96 hyo (1 hyo = 60 kg) a year and ¥1.47 million in revenues, which breaks down to ¥1.1 in sales and the rest in government subsidies. When the Democratic Party of Japan became the ruling party, it threw out the old Liberal Democratic Party subsidy system, which basically discouraged farmers from growing rice. The DPJ subsidy, called kobetsu shotoku hosho (individual income compensation), pays them to grow by making up for any losses they might incur due to low market prices.

The Fukui farmer's annual expenses for cultivating his paddy run to about ¥1.77 million, which includes ¥520,000 for outside labor. It's implied that the paddy owner himself does very little actual farming. On his tax return he also lists in the loss column ¥600,000 in depreciation for his farm equipment. All in all, the farm in 2010 lost ¥300,000. However, he says it doesn't really bother him. His main job is working for an electrical parts maker, which pays him a salary of ¥5.3 million. His wife also works, earning ¥2.8 million.