Japanese rice farmers jump onto burgeoning whisky bandwagon

Tokyo

JAPAN'S burgeoning whisky business is driving rice farmer Hiroshi Tsubouchi to hit the booze.

With domestic rice consumption sliding, Mr Tsubouchi, 36, said that he is getting on the whisky bandwagon - or, at least, switching to the barley used to make it. With Japanese whiskies ranking among the best - and most expensive - in the world, the profits of the local distillery industry are beginning to flow to the country's farmers.

Mr Tsubouchi will reap his first crop next month, joining a dozen farmers in central Japan testing barley's potential to bolster incomes and help feed the nation's malt-hungry spirit-makers. Japan is the world's fourth largest importer of the grain and second biggest buye…