Japan’s agriculture minister has resigned after making an inappropriate remark about buying rice. Taku Eto said at a party seminar Sunday that he never had to buy rice thanks to his supporters’ gifts,

An off-the-cuff remark about never paying for rice has cost Japan’s agriculture minister his job, as pressure mounts on the government to solve the nation’s rice crisis.

The remark came in the midst of a rice shortage that has infuriated voters. “Frankly, my supporters give me quite a lot of rice,” said the minister, Taku Eto.