Price of rice in Japan falls below ¥4k per 5kg

I can buy rice at Costco in the US for $25 for 50lbs, which is equivalent to 854 yen for 5KG. A bit less than 1/4 the cost of Japanese grown rice.

Isn't Japanese rice pretty different to Costco rice? Genuine question.

Japanese rice variety I think is called Japonica. I'm not sure if costco sells it.

Yeah, as someone who started with Costco rice and slowly moved up the quality chain, there is a clear difference in taste between even average Japanese rice and most Costco rice. It would be interesting to see a price/quality comparison between the U.S. and Japanese Costcos though.

Cheapest rice I can easily get here in the UK, equivalent to ~1600JPY/5kg: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/314300009

Cheapest rice I am actually willing to eat, ~3000JPY/5kg: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/293247162

Shortgrain rice, such as Japanese rice, tends to be even more expensive than that.

That said, no idea where whatever it is the article is quoting the price of falls on that scale.

You can buy the same rice in Japan if you are really desperate.

I think they’re deliberately talking only about rice people actually want to buy.

I can't remember how much I paid, but I was able to buy 10KG of grown-in-Japan short grain rice at Costco in Canada within the last year.

That's the perfect setting for the "Mom can we have X ? No, we have X at home" meme.

Otherwise USA rice is imported in Japan, as well as other countries' and is indeed way cheaper, but not desirable and people aren't literally starving either.

This is one of these case where cross-country comparison might bring little relevant information.

Another example could be wine sold at US Cosco vs French Costco. It would be an indicator of something, but I'd personally be lost if I had to interpret it in regards to wine trends in France in general.

California does make good rice. Japan is just hyper protectionist with extremely high import taxes on rice. They don't get imported because of this tax. The US produces both lower quality and high quality rice, as you might expect of an enormous country that exports half its rice. This is why prices remain high. Do you think someone who is poor would not buy cheaper rice that had 90% the quality if they could?

In fact the US produces plenty of Japanese rice (Japonica)

People who eat mostly rice are picky about the rice they eat.

Golden Rice 2 was on the market for about five years in the Philippines before it got banned. If anybody had wanted to grow it or eat it it could have been a different story. I was talking to a genetic engineer a few weeks ago who said that the sensory qualities weren't that great. Nothing would have stopped advocates in the US from planting a few acres and selling bags of it (it's approved and all) but had they done so it would have put the lie to the idea that the developers were being persecuted like Prometheus. I don't think it was anywhere near the threat that its opponents said it was but it was nowhere near the boon that its promoters said it was.

not the same species!

american white rice is only good when it's transformed into spanish rice, fried rice or creamy rice.

otherwise it's too bland because it's stripped. brown rice is better but still not as good.

both japonica and jasmine rice are good on their own.

love jasmine rice over all of them, it makes your mouth water when you cook it.

edit: who downvotes a comment about rice? lol.

Can someone tell me why a statement of fact is being downvoted? I am genuinely puzzled.

For everyone else assuming Costco rice is low quality, they offer multiple options.

Costco’s basmati rice is excellent quality and can be ordered online 20lb for $27 delivered.

So that’s only about double the unit price for top end, premium rice.

haven't seen japonica often in the US, but jasmine rice is similar and available pretty much everywhere.

in fact, jasmine rice smells and tastes better, and stickier!

Rice in Japan is indeed weirdly expensive in the first place. Typical price is ~1 USD/lbs, but there's been a mysterious shortage and they're retailing at double the regular price.

The minister of agriculture right now, Shinjiro Koizumi, is the son of Jun-ichiro Koizumi with now-unpopular legacy of deregulating and wrecking the Japanese postal service among few other government functions. The minister is now advocating for deregulating rice anyhow in response to the ongoing situation, and the situation kind of stinks.

Sorry that it's probably not the kind of content appropriate at HN anyway. It's more of "uncovering Cold War history podcast" style of content except it's in live.

maybe I mis-understood what you meant by similar here but jasmine rice is nothing at all like japanese rice.

Jasmine top, Japanese bottom

https://postimg.cc/6y2b0JdB

They have a completely different consistency when cooked and are used for different things.

Premium Tamanishiki (a type of premium sushi rice) is grown in the US and Japan, the US just produces a lot of types of rice. Japonica is a category of rice that includes Calrose for example which is grown primarily in California and is definitely an "American" rice given that it founded the California rice industry

Japan has very high rice tariffs to protect its domestic rice production. It is not peoples choice, it is not available at a cheaper price.

yes in fact, it is. relative to american rice.

it's has a similar stickiness, the taste is a bit different, but better imo.

it pairs well with asian dishes as opposed to american rices and can be used for sushi.

it's not 1:1, but it's certainly a good substitute when you can find japanese rice.

Calrose, the primary rice grown in California is a Japonica, its just Japanese rice grown in America. Tamanishiki, which is one of the high grade sushi rices is grown in the US and Japan

It is O. s. subsp. japonica

Nice. What is the average supermarket price for the equivalent rice in US.

Jasmine rice can NOT be used for sushi! It's not sticky enough to hold together. The fact that it's not sticky makes it good for fried rice, not for sushi.

The previous minister was fired after they admitted they didn't have to experience the expensive rice because they were given free rice by farms in Japan

hmm, well the jasmine I buy is extra sticky.

maybe it's how it turns out in the rice cooker.

either way, I've done it and it tastes good /shrug

Because the poster's tone implies that American Calrose rice is inedible vs the superior Japanese rice. That's simply not true, and a bit reductionist.

Speculating from online comments around it and from looking at bags of Calrose rice, they seem to be few decades behind in cultivation techniques and selective breeding improvements. The grains look smaller, less shiny and more yellowy. but technically they should be of the same strain.

I found a TikTok which showed rice in a Japanese Costco. A calrose variety American grown rice (Legrande Family rice) in the Japanese Costco was 2998 yen for 5KG. Must be tariffs causing the price to be so high.

That is some bizarre obliviousness of privilege. I thought all of the more-equal-animals knew to keep quiet on the implicit bribes and other luxuries of their station.

Costco sells a couple of Kokuho-brand Calrose varieties, which are decent drop-ins for for generic East Asian rice.

Costco sells a few varieties, this is the one we buy: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/kokuho-rose-us-%231-e...

It's sushi rice, grown in CA, and it's very good. Same stuff we used to buy from our local Japanese grocery store in CA.

It's rather quite the opposite in Japan. The "more-equal-animals" consistently make public completely oblivious remarks, only to apologize the following day and then (often) just go back to business as usual.

These days it seems preferable to the Western alternative of politicians blatantly lying about their class to avoid the label.

In fact Costco has some of the most powerful wine buyers in the world

I think this is driven by the fetish to be extremely apologetic in Japanese culture.

Doesn't matter, its a whole other country

> Calrose, the primary rice grown in California

Surprising, because while its widely available in California it seems to be a tiny minority of available rice. A search I did says it is 80% of California's crop, so presumably a lot of it is exported?

Looking at the closest one to me, $9/5lb (surely much less per pound in a bigger bag)

> In fact the US produces plenty of Japanese rice (Japonica)

Indeed, I bought some and it was good. Italy also grows Japanese strains and it also of pretty good quality. Those are not cheap either, though. I'm assuming that's not the Costco rice parent was referring.

> This is why prices remain high.

It's complicated, and no single factor explains it all. Even singling out importing rice, Japan has better options than the US (the SEA region is a much more logical source for instance)

On the "it's complicated" part, believe it or not, Japan gov is/was actively restricting rice production as a long term strategy.

> Do you think someone who is poor would not buy cheaper rice that had 90% the quality if they could?

That's ignoring all the other options, in particular wheat (bread, pasta, noodles etc.), which can be cheaper than cheap rice. It doesn't match the cliche, but Japan has steadily included wheat as a staple over the years.

It doesn't serve every culinary purpose and most California grocery shoppers are not Japanese. You wouldn't make Moros y Cristianos with it. You wouldn't make Hoppin' John with it. It's no good for your Indian menu. It isn't really what you'd serve beside fried chicken.

There is no "best rice" any more than there is "best pants".

I don't think the grey-haired dinosaur politicians are sexist, classist (is that a word?) and racist because they love to apologize.

If your jasmine rice is turning out sticky you’re cooking it wrong.

Snobs will tell you yes, but Kokuho Rose is a California grown sushi rice that's good enough to be served over imported Japanese rice at Japanese restaurants. Really disappointing that the farm is closing up shop.

> now-unpopular legacy of deregulating and wrecking the Japanese postal service

Unpopular with who? In hindsight, the post office was a bandaid that needed to be ripped off before it became the next JNR. If he didn't do that, the tax payer would be on the hook for its final implosion, which is happening right now.

Good to know, however I always buy short grain brown rice, I like that one better.

Yeah, their imperviousness to either progress or consequences is kind of incredible. An entire nation of collectivist, rule-following tendencies with a scummy layer of cartoonishly evil folks at the top, who for some reason seem immune from having to be decent people.

In my experience it's just barely sticky enough for sushi provided you don't wash it but I don't think the texture is right for that usage. I prefer it for most things though.

And yet, somehow, it's a generally pleasant country to live in with happy healthy people and opportunity. Though, that momentum Japan's been running on seems to be running out.

Closing up shop?! I missed that news. Crushing. It's really the only rice I buy that's accessible but good quality. Sad.

Is this the comment you are referring to? I can’t find any such implications. Maybe it was edited?

    I can buy rice at Costco in the US for $25 for 50lbs, which is equivalent to 854 yen for 5KG. A bit less than 1/4 the cost of Japanese grown rice.

might be confusing mushy with sticky - the individual grains of sushi rice is intact and whole. Mushy rice is a grain that has too absorbed too much water, and is burst.

Perhaps because of factual errors (O. s. japonica is not only the same species, but the same subspecies), and pointlessly negative personal opinion making up the rest of your comment.

It's quite amazing how many kinds of Basmati and Jasmine rice you can find in a normal UK supermarket, and yet be completely unable to find any shortgrain rice at all: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/search?query=short+gra...

I also wasn’t following. I primarily eat US rice. The marginally better rice from Japan I might buy if I’m going to make sushi at home, but that’s just because I’d be investing so much time and energy already, might as well spend a few bucks more on a slightly better rice.