Japan’s longest-serving leader and former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has died after being shot July 8 at a political campaign event in the city of Nara.
Abe served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 before stepping down due to illness.
He was re-elected in 2012 and served until 2020. Famous for bringing his economic policies, called Abenomics, that had three arrows of monetary, fiscal and structural reform, Abe and former President Obama were the leaders and drivers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that later became the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CP-TPP).
Japan is a longtime market for U.S corn, sorghum, barley, ethanol and co-products.
“Our hearts go out to Japan at this critical time, and we are sorry for such a great loss," said U.S. Grains Council President and CEO Ryan LeGrand.
"Prime Minister Abe was a leader in many ways, including growing trade between the U.S. and Japan. He continued the long, close friendship between the U.S. and Japan that goes back even farther than the opening of the then U.S. Feed Grains Council’s first international office in Tokyo in 1961. We are saddened today for our friends, partners and the people of Japan.”
In the 2020/21 marketing year, Japan was a top market across all commodities, ranking as the third-largest market for grains in all forms with exports of more than 14.5 million metric tons (equal to 573.5 million bushels), valued at $6.9 billion.
Japan purchased 11.2 million metric tons (442.3 million bushels) of U.S. corn; 33,700 metric tons (1.3 million bushels) of U.S. sorghum; 18,300 metric tons (841,100 bushels) of U.S. barley and barley products; 475,560 metric tons of U.S. DDGS; and an estimated total of 89.1 million gallons (31.6 million bushels) of U.S. ethanol included in ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) exports during the 2020/2021 marketing year.
