Three weeks have passed since Shinjiro Koizumi was named agriculture minister, and it¡¯s hard to think of a day when he didn¡¯t make the headlines ¡ª for anything from an impromptu announcement to the press to a visit to a local supermarket.
It¡¯s not just about his photogenic looks and deft use of traditional and social media. What¡¯s often depicted is a man taking on one of the most politically influential groups in the country ¡ª Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA).
¡°Never in my life have I thought about rice so much every day, from morning to night,¡± he said in an interview published in Bungei Shunju, a monthly magazine. ¡°I am prepared to take any measure without being bound by precedents.¡±
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