The remark came in the midst of a rice shortage that has infuriated voters. “Frankly, my supporters give me quite a lot of rice,” said the minister, Taku Eto.
Japan’s agriculture minister resigned on Wednesday amid an uproar over his remark that he had never bought a bag of rice, his nation’s staple grain, which is in short supply nationally.
The comment drew more attention to the government’s inability to resolve the rice shortage, which has driven up the cost of a food consumed by almost every Japanese household. Prices have remained high despite the release of thousands of tons of rice from an emergency government stockpile.
Frustrations boiled over after the agricultural minister, Taku Eto, made the offhand comment on Sunday.
“I have never bought rice myself,” Mr. Eto said during a speech on farming policy. “Frankly, my supporters give me quite a lot of rice. I have so much rice at home that I could sell it.”
The shortage has been blamed on decades-old policies, meant to protect small-time farmers, that have blocked newcomers from buying or using agricultural land, leaving thousands of acres uncultivated. Efforts to change the system have been blocked by the national farming cooperative and other rural interests, which are stolid supporters of the governing Liberal Democratic Party.
That has put Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba between a rock and a hard place. Urban voters have chafed at the soaring prices and shortages, which at times have forced rationing by supermarkets. The issue has driven Mr. Ishiba’s dismal approval ratings even lower ahead of elections for the upper house of Parliament, which are scheduled for July.
Mr. Eto was immediately criticized for his comment, which made him look aloof and out of touch at a time when Japan is starting to feel, if on a small scale, some of the populist tremors that have shaken other advanced democracies.
“We don’t need an agriculture minister who doesn’t understand the viewpoint of consumers or producers,” said Kazuya Shimba, the general secretary of the Democratic Party for the People, a small, right-leaning populist party.
Though Mr. Eto quickly apologized, the backlash only grew. Seizing a political opening, opposition parties stepped up their pressure, threatening a no-confidence motion in Parliament against the farm minister. The uproar became a liability for Mr. Ishiba, whose approval ratings have fallen into the low 20s.
“If the confusion over his remark had continued, it would affect the implementation of agricultural policies,” Mr. Ishiba said on Wednesday, explaining Mr. Eto’s decision to step down.
Underscoring the political importance of containing the furor, Mr. Ishiba said on Wednesday that he had asked one of the Liberal Democrats’ rising stars, Shinjiro Koizumi, the photogenic son of a former prime minister, to replace Mr. Eto.
Kiuko Notoyaand Hisako Ueno contributed reporting.
