The price of rice doubled in Japan in the 12 months to May, data showed Friday, as an acceleration in inflation piled fresh pressure on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ahead of key elections next month.Polls for parliament’s upper house are crucial for Ishiba after public support for his administration tumbled to its lowest level since he took office in October, partly because of frustration over the cost of living.One of the main sources of anger has been the surging cost of the food staple, which has rocketed for months owing to shortages caused by a variety of reasons including supply chain snarls.The price of the grain rocketed 101 percent year-on-year in May, having jumped 98.4 percent in April and more than 92.5 percent in March.That helped push core inflation, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, to a forecast-topping 3.7 percent — its highest level since January 2023 — and up from 3.5 percent in April.The rice crisis has led the government to take the rare step of releasing its emergency stockpile since February, which it usually only ever did during disasters.But rice is not the only thing pushing inflation up: electricity bills jumped 11.3 percent in May, while gas fees rose 5.4 percent, according to Friday’s data.Excluding energy and fresh food, consumer prices rose 3.3 percent, compared with April’s 3.0 percent.”Since I’m a temp worker, my salaries have remained stagnant for years, and I see no sign of change in the years ahead,” Chika Ohara, 52, told AFP on a Tokyo street. “But prices are going up nonetheless and I feel the impact,” she said.  – Cash handouts -To help households combat the cost of living, Ishiba has pledged cash handouts of 20,000 yen ($139) for every citizen, and twice as much for children, ahead of the election.The 68-year-old leader’s coalition was deprived of a majority in the powerful lower house in October as voters vented their anger at rising prices and political scandals.It was the worst election result in 15 years for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan almost continuously since 1955.The Bank of Japan has been tightening monetary policy since last year as inflation crept up but worries about the impact of US tariffs on the world’s number four economy has forced it to take a slower approach. Economists predicted a growth slowdown ahead.Earlier this week it kept interest rates unchanged and said it would taper its purchase of government bonds at a slower pace.”Policy flip-flops and delayed pass-through from producers to consumers mean inflation will slow only gradually in the coming months,” said Stefan Angrick of Moody’s Analytics.”This will keep a sustained pickup in real wages out of reach, and with it a meaningful uptick in consumption.”Factors behind the rice shortages include an intensely hot and dry summer two years ago that damaged harvests nationwide.Since then some traders have been hoarding rice in a bid to boost their profits down the line, experts say.The issue was made worse by panic-buying last year prompted by a government warning about a potential “megaquake” that did not strike.Intensifying fighting between Iran and Israel was also adding upward pressure on energy prices, posing a further risk to the Japanese economy.

Europe’s ambition to be a world player in decarbonised transportation arguably depends on sourcing lithium abroad, especially in South America.Even the bloc’s broader energy security and climate goals could depend on securing a steady supply of the key mineral, used in batteries and other clean energy supply chains.But Europe has run into a trio of obstacles: lack of money, double-edged regulations and competition from China, analysts told AFP.China has a major head start.It currently produces more than three-quarters of batteries sold worldwide, refines 70 percent of raw lithium and is the world’s third-largest extractor behind Australia and Chile, according to 2024 data from the United States Geological Survey.To gain a foothold, Europe has developed a regulatory framework that emphasises environmental preservation, quality job creation and cooperation with local communities. It has also signed bilateral agreements with about 15 countries, including Chile and Argentina, the world’s fifth-largest lithium producer.But too often it fails to deliver when it comes to investment, say experts.”I see a lot of memoranda of understanding, but there is a lack of action,” Julia Poliscanova, director of electric vehicles at the Transport and Environment (T&E) think tank, told AFP.”More than once, on the day that we signed another MoU, the Chinese were buying an entire mine in the same country.”The investment gap is huge: China spent $6 billion on lithium projects abroad from 2020 to 2023, while Europe barely coughed up a billion dollars over the same period, according to data compiled by T&E.- Lagging investment -At the same time, the bottleneck in supply has tightened: last year saw a 30 percent increase in global demand for lithium, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).”To secure the supply of raw materials, China is actively investing in mines abroad through state-owned companies with political support from the government,” the IEA noted.China’s Belt and Road Initiative funnelled $21.4 billion into mining beyond its shores in 2024, according to the report.Europe, meanwhile, is “lagging behind in investment levels in these areas”, said Sebastian Galarza, founder of the Centre for Sustainable Mobility in Santiago, Chile.”The lack of a clear path for developing Europe’s battery and mining industries means that gap will be filled by other actors.”In Africa, for example, Chinese demand has propelled Zimbabwe to become the fourth-largest lithium producer in the world.”The Chinese let their money do the talking,” said Theo Acheampong, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations.By 2035, all new cars and vans sold in the European Union must produce zero carbon emissions, and EU leaders and industry would like as much as possible of that market share to be sourced locally.Last year, just over 20 percent of new vehicles sold in the bloc were electric. “Currently, only four percent of Chile’s lithium goes to Europe,” noted Stefan Debruyne, director of external affairs at Chilean private mining company SQM. “The EU has every opportunity to increase its share of the battery industry.”- Shifting supply chains -But Europe’s plans to build dozens of battery factories have been hampered by fluctuating consumer demand and competition from Japan (Panasonic), South Korea (LG Energy Solution, Samsung) and, above all, China (CATL, BYD).The key to locking down long-term lithium supply is closer ties in the so-called “lithium triangle” formed by Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, which account for nearly half of the world’s reserves, analysts say. To encourage cooperation with these countries, European actors have proposed development pathways that would help establish electric battery production in Latin America.Draft EU regulations would allow Latin America to “reconcile local development with the export of these raw materials, and not fall into a purely extractive cycle”, said Juan Vazquez, deputy head for Latin America and the Caribbean at the OECD Development Centre.But it is still unclear whether helping exporting countries develop complete supply chains makes economic sense, or will ultimately tilt in Europe’s favour. “What interest do you have as a company in setting up in Chile to produce cathodes, batteries or more sophisticated materials if you don’t have a local or regional market to supply?” said Galarza.”Why not just take the lithium, refine it and do everything in China and send the battery back to us?”Pointing to the automotive tradition in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, Galarza suggested an answer. “We must push quickly towards the electrification of transport in the region so we can share in the benefits of the energy transition,” he argued.But the road ahead looks long. Electric vehicles were only two percent of new car sales in Mexico and Chile last year, six percent in Brazil and seven percent in Colombia, according to the IEA.The small nation of Costa Rica stood out as the only nation in the region where EVs hit double digits, at 15 percent of new car sales.