Toru Wakui, 65, is a rice farmer who has defied the government's blanket control of rice production since the 1970s. But many other farmers who seek the right to freely grow rice based on their own business decisions regard him as a hero.
Wakui has continued his campaign to defy the mandatory quota-based program of controlling prices through production over the past four decades.
The program, called "gentan" (paddy reduction), is designed to keep rice prices artificially high. Gentan has long been recognized as a symbol of the government's policy of benefitting vested interest groups, namely rice farmers and politicians living in rural areas.
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