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

> The fact the average Japanese person won't even consider trying imported Japonica rice from Australia or USA is madness if budget is a consideration.

I live in Japan, and my girlfriend is an atypical Japanese that doesn't like rice that much. For her, the madness is that people here won't even consider other sources of carbs like pasta, potatoes, or bread.

I am not Japanese, and don’t eat a lot of rice (twice a week maybe), but I don’t think it’s madness.

If you told me to eat rice instead of bread I would probably be just as horrified

But yakisoba is pasta/noodles right? Or is that a dish more tailored to Western? I've never been to Japan, I'm just wondering.

Yeah, I've seen a fair amount of "but what will we eat?!" Netsuke-clutching and like... Y'all already have a trend towards bread for breakfast and you love your wafu pasta. Do that a couple of times a week.

But it's Japan, so I imagine there's plenty of Showa who think all change is to be valiently fought and that not eating rice prevents you from being "proper" Japanese.

Yes, it is, and no, it's very much to the Japanese taste.

There's no absence of non-rice main meals in Japan; Wafu pasta is an entire category of Japanese pasta dishes whose name literally means Japanese Style Pasta. Udon, Ramen and Soba abound, and Kansai in particular has a large number of Konamon, flour-based meals and snacks (resulting from Allied food aid after the bombings).

In some ways, the reaction to suggestions of swapping out rice are like that redneck uncle of yours who is mad his Cardiologist told him to cut down on red meat because "what else am I supposed to eat?!" even though his wife does all the cooking and they already have pork/chicken/fish 3 nights out of 7. It's an identity thing; in some ways to eat rice is to _be_ Japanese.

There is this whole "It is not a proper meal unless there is a bowl of rice" kind of thinking. So you get rice with the potatoes that come with your Nikujaga, the mashed potatoes, steak and fried potatoes, etc. But then there is that completely arbitrary line that you do not get a bowl of rice with your noodles (unless it is for dunking into the leftover soup of your Ramen or Tsukemen), pasta, burger, etc.

I love Japanese food culture to bits, but figuring out when a bowl of rice is vital for a meal to even be considered a meal and when it is not is still a mystery to me after observing my wife and in-laws for more than a decade. Having been taught the "food pyramid" [1] line of thinking as a child, it just makes no sense to this gaijin how we can not substitute one source of carbohydrates with another, but I suppose that is what culture is for you.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Guide_Pyramid

I recall watching a video on YouTube from the creator Paolo in Tokyo, and he mentioned that bread is now more popular than rice as a breakfast staple in Japan. Not sure how true it is though.

I live in Japan, and have lived here for the last 25 years. Yes, bread is far more popular for breakfast than rice is. If you go to a Japanese-style Inn, they will serve rice and fish and miso for a "traditional" breakfast, but at home, many people eat toast. There's been an increase in jams and spreads to put on toast, as well. My family here in Japan (I'm American, wife is Japanese, kids are both), we've always eaten bread and yogurt with milk nearly every single day.

PS -- We nearly always have rice with lunch and dinner, though. Japanese-grown. IMHO, it tastes very different from imported rice, and we HAVE tried.

It's similar in Ireland, at least amongst my elder relatives. A meal is not really a meal if it doesn't come with potatoes.

Normally when someone makes that kind of remarks, the subconscious intent is that we can further enrich rosters of lunch options with abundant Japanese purchasing power, than that we can actually replace rice with something more however rational. So it sort of amounts to modern day let them eat cakes quote - which wasn't crazy as it sounds with context at the time that cakes were supposed to be cheaper than plain breads, if it weren't for famine.

Yakisoba in traditional Japanese cuisine is noodles (“soba”), fried (“yaki”). Noodles varies but you can use ramen, udon, or others, and it’s stir fried up with vegetables, meats and a worcestershire based sauce and has been in japan since the 1930’s so like most things it means different things in different places.

This is my personal gold standard for yakisoba: https://sanyofoodsamerica.com/products/sapporo-ichiban-chow-...

But I’ve also seen “yakisoba” served up in US military mess halls and correctional institutions as little more than spaghetti noodles and hamburger as well.

American: meat.

Same-same.

The apocryphal quote is "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" - "Let them eat brioche", a rich, egg-laden bread. But it translates less well than "cake".

Interestingly, similar quotes seem to have been attributed to other royalty of other countries, well before the revolution.

Why is it so objectionable that people are upset a common food item is increasing in price?

Food isn't a commodity. I won't happily substitute nutriloaf for my lunch today.

While I'm English with some Indian leanings, I think it's potatoes > rice > bread > naan bread.

that influence is definitely present in hawaii, where you can get a breakfast plate at mcdonalds with spam, eggs and rice [0]

[0] https://www.mashed.com/650241/the-mcdonalds-breakfast-item-y...

Are those “>” greater than signs or arrows?

Neither English nor Indian and I would rate Naan bread right at the top if I had a choice.