The Wall Street Journal Reports,"in a surprise move, Mr. Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved a plan that called for ending production rationing and across-the-board cash handouts to farmers in five years, curbing support for a key bloc that has kept the party in power for most of the postwar period".
"The proposal is part of a broader package being crafted by the LDP and the government to ease trade barriers in agriculture and other politically influential sectors, as Mr. Abe steers Japan to join an emerging pan-Pacific trade bloc endorsed by the U.S".
"But hours before the farm announcement, Mr. Abe's health minister disappointed some of the prime minister's allies by unveiling a closely watched plan for regulating online sales of over-the-counter medicines. While the market is relatively small, Mr. Abe earlier this year had made it a symbol of his push to cut red tape, vowing to set the same set of rules for e-commerce companies as brick-and-mortar drugstores. After intense pushback from pharmacies and concerns raised by safety advocates, he instead decided to put forth legislation that restricts online sales for the most potent OTC medications".
"That prompted a blistering news conference from Internet mogul Hiroshi Mikitani, once a strong supporter of Mr. Abe who said he would quit one of Mr. Abe's economic advisory panels in protest over the decision. "We were supposed to make it easier for businesses to do new things, and encourage innovation—we're about to go in the exact opposite direction," the chief executive of Rakuten Inc.,an online marketplace, told reporters.
