Japan Rice Prices: Updated Nov. 18, 2025

Japan retail rice price hits record high since gov't release eased

Article source:   https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251115/p2g/00m/0bu/013000c

Ideas

It seems, maybe globally too, that once prices begin to increase related to some product or commodity, all those involved increase their prices, as they may feel or think, if that store is increasing its prices I should increase my prices too.

Rice in Japan is a stable and a very important food product and it never should have been like this as the government should have taken every precaution to ensure there wasn't a shortage in the summer of 2024.

There must be something in the agricultural network in Japan that is keeping prices high and or allowing rice prices to continue to increase even though the Japanese government released its reserves to help lower the price.

This could be a situation of market power by some in the agricultural network, where some or many control the market and are keeping prices higher than what they should be to enhance their own interests.

There is no proof of some using market power to control the market but it seems strange that prices have continued to remain high for over a year in Japan, despite the government attempts to flood the market with reserve rice to lower prices. The Japanese government has also increased the supply of foreign rice too to try and lower the price.

Of course the 6,000 supermarkets are in business to make a profit but at the same time they know that their customers are experiencing the continued increase of rice and some of them have to be concerned for their customers and what they are going through too.

Once again, if one or many supermarkets are increasing prices then other supermarkets are going to do the same to make sure they get their share of the profits. But some might think I will try to keep my prices down for the good of my customers despite the fact I might be losing some profits here.

It has been suggested in other articles that despite a good harvest some in the rice network are keeping prices high to ensure they can keep their profits high too.

The problem with markets, sometimes, is there has or need to be cooperation by all in order for the market the run smoothly and or ensure there fairness for all involve in the market, as rice producers, wholesalers, sellers such as supermarkets and of course the final retail customer.

If any of those involve the market try to take advantage of the market, including the final retail customer, the market can potentially can get out of its normal market mechanism, as prices can become distorted.

For example if the final retail customer or customers feel their is going to be a shortage of rice they might begin to horde rice supplies and cause market disarray, and the same with any of the actor in a market.

There is always a time lag between what the distributors and wholesalers do and how long it takes to get to the supermarkets and the final retail customer.

And then there is the situation again where the supermarkets, for a specific period of time, will keep the price high to ensure they can maintain there profit margin, due to any number of factors such as increases in whatever costs they might have.

Lets say there was a poor harvest in 2024, and the market actors didn't know if was going to happen as it did. Not to criticize, but shouldn't the agricultural leaders have known about this long before the harvest of the 2024 rice period.

And maybe the rice reserves that the government had at its disposal should have been released much earlier to keep rice prices as normal as possible in the market.

At the same time too the foreign rice supply should have been increased sooner than it was allowed, to increase the rice supply in the market as a way to keep prices down.

Once again, rice is a food staple in Japan which means its a very important product which never should have happened as those involved in the rice market should have all cooperated to ensure the rice supplies were normal and rice prices were normal as many Japanese families and households were stressed out because of some kind of market failure.

Have a nice day!

Japan Rice and Imported Rice: Updated March 29, 2025

Tariffed imported rice still popular, cheaper than Japan's domestic grain

Article source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250315/p2a/00m/0bu/007000c

Ideas:

As domestic prices continue to increase in Japan and especially as rice prices continue to increase, despite the government attempt to increase rice supplies price remain high.

There is something amiss related to continue high rice prices in Japan as the governments attempt to increase supplies which should, in normal supply and demand, begin to lower prices.

So Japanese households and consumers are beginning to look for rice substitutes such as the cheaper Vietnamese rice products seem to getting more popular as Japanese rice prices are not decreasing.

Globally, maybe still for some consumers, domestic products are preferred but these days all countries and economies have available to them more choices than ever before, including a variety of foreign products.

And as Japanese rice prices continue to remain very high, Japanese consumers maybe have had enough and they need and want cheaper rice, even if its foreign rice.

There is the ideas or absolute and comparative advantage, and if something can be made in another country, of similar quality at a lower cost, why not buy that product, such as again, rice made in Vietnam.

It seems, according to the article, that Vietnamese rice has become very popular as maybe Japanese rice, for some or many has prices itself out of the market for some Japanese consumers, and it seems it has become so popular that the company selling it has to limit the amount sold to customers.

The question remains what do Japanese suppliers of rice think about companies now selling foreign rice in Japan, as for a very long time, the rice market in Japan was highly restricted to only Japanese rice and or the tariffs of foreign rice was so high Japanese consumers couldn't afford foreign rice, so the market was for the most part a Japanese rice product market only.

|Most likely Japanese restaurants buy a lot of foreign rice as it cheaper than Japanese domestic rice, which helps to keep the cost down for their customers.

Most likely, before the rice shortage of the summer of 2024, most Japanese might not have thought about buying foreign rice as they preferred Japanese even though foreign rice is cheaper even with the tariff on it, or maybe have even thought the taste of foreign rice was not as good as Japanese domestic rice.

It, again, prices can change people mindset and even preferences and as the price of rice continue to b high in Japan, maybe for example the middle class, the lower middle class, and the fixed income groups are now looking for foreign rice to buy as its cheaper.

According to the next paragraph is it seems to import rice that the Japanese government sells at auctions has become very popular as Japanese households, Japanese restaurants are buying a lot of foreign rice as again the price of Japanese domestic rice just continues to remain very high for most Japanese households. 

Lets hope that Japanese rice suppliers and those selling foreign rice in Japanese supermarkets are not going to get greedy and increase the price, too much, despite demand increasing for foreign rice.

And lets hops the Kanematsu Corp. will also not get greedy with the selling of Calrose, US rice, as if the company starts to get too greedy it defeats the purpose of providing a good product in the market at a reasonable price for all in society.

Perhaps one of the good things to come out of the summer 2024 rice shortage and continued high prices of rice as it became an incentive for Japanese households and Japanese restaurants to find alternatives to the high priced Japanese rice and the foreign rice that was being imported has now become popular with some customers and maybe in the future it will give Japanese households a variety of choices too buy instead of just Japanese domestic rice.

Yes, again, it seems the rice market is almost in a state of market failure as for some reason, despite the attempt of the Japanese government to import foreign rice and the Japanese government releasing its store of rice reserves the price of rice in the rice market continues to high despite supplies improving.

In a market failure the normal workings of supply and demand are constrained by one or more other actors related to the market. It could be rice suppliers, it could be auctioneers at auctions it could other middlemen who are forcing the rice prices to remain high despite the increased supply which should in normal supply and demand actions bring the price down.

Have a nice day!