Japan looks to rice-based biofuel

By Risa Maeda

TOKYO (Reuters) - Producing fuel from rice will help resource-poor Japan reduce its dependence on imported gasoline and make better use of deserted farmland, a government official in charge of the country's biofuel policy said.

Domestically-grown rice could become one of the main drivers of Japan's ethanol output, Hiroyuki Suematsu, who heads the farm ministry's environmental policy division, told Reuters.

"It allows Japan to address the environmental issue while enjoying the potential benefits of energy security and food security," he told Reuters.

Food security is a long-standing issue for Japan, where the self-sufficiency rate is only 40 percent on a calorie basis, one of the lowest among industrialized nations.

Japan could offset possible disruptions in food imports, for example due to bad weather, by shifting low-quality, high-yield rice from fuel use to normal consumption.

It will also allow Japan to utilize the 380,000 hectares of farmland -- some 10 percent of the total in 2005 -- that have been abandoned as cheaper imports have driven Japanese farmers out of business and into the cities.

POLITICAL SUPPORT

While ethanol can be imported for lower cost than producing it domestically, the home-grown variety has been gaining political support.  Continued...