Japanese rice farmers are inefficient, have too much political clout, and are weighing down the economy.

Japanese rice farmers are inefficient bastards with too much political clout. Any industry that requires a 778% protectionist tariff in order to stay afloat is better off sinking. In essence, the Japanese poor and middle class are paying artificially high prices for their food, just to support farmers that haven't had an innovative idea since the tractor was invented.

Granted, that's not all their fault. Long before they were born, the government of Japan set this problem in motion.. Modern farmers are the illegitimate children of post-war land reforms.. Honestly, consider that your average rice farmer in Japan only tends to 1.65 acres of land. I could do that in addition to working a full time job. It really a pittance.. If a Japanese rice farmer came to North America, he might be surprised to find that American farmers do in minutes what he does in days.

These primitive Japanese farmers are, at least in part, responsible for the high cost of living in Japan and the subsequent decline of population. They are, for the most part, responsible for the controversy in Japan over the TPP. They are holding Japan back from improving and evolving as a society and as a country. Just as Japan has seen the end of many distinct eras, so must the era of the inefficient rice farmers come to an end. Let the markets decide...