As voting for the upper house election approaches, Japanese farmers and their lobby groups are struggling to see who will best speak up for their interests.
While they have been a traditional support base for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, many have grown skeptical about backing its candidates after the LDP chief, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, announced in March an intention to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations for creating one of the world's largest free trade zones.
The pact, now being negotiated by 11 nations and set to involve Japan from late July, is estimated to boost the country's gross domestic product by 3.2 trillion yen but at the same time slash Japan's agricultural output by 3 trillion yen from 7.1 trillion yen if all tariffs are eliminated without compensation measures.
