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The Mainichi
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
News in Easy English: Rice prices in Japan finally go down a little bit
TOKYO -- In Japan, rice prices became lower for the first time in 18 weeks. This happened because the government started selling rice it had in storage. But experts say rice will still be expensive, because special rice with famous names is still very high-priced. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on May 12 that supermarkets in Japan now sell rice at an average price of 4,214 yen (about $29) for 5 kilograms. This price is from April 28 to May 4. The price is two times as high as one year before. But it is 19 yen cheaper than the week before. Since mid-March, the government has started selling cheaper stored rice. It already sold about 210,000 tons. At first, not much of this rice reached supermarkets, but now it is slowly becoming easier to buy. This stored rice is usually sold mixed with other rice. It is called "blended rice." At stores, its prices are mostly between 3,500 yen and 4,000 yen (about $24 to $27) for 5 kg. The ministry also said the amount of blended rice at supermarkets is getting bigger each week. In March, blended rice was only around 19% of the total rice sold. By the end of April, it went up and became more than 30%. Most of the stored rice was bought by JA Zen-Noh. JA Zen-Noh is now quickly selling this rice to other sellers, so more rice will soon be in supermarkets. This can help rice prices fall again. Katsuhito Fuyuki, a professor at Tohoku University, said, "The cheaper stored rice is now coming to supermarkets. But famous-name rice like Koshihikari is still very expensive. Because of this, prices probably will not become much cheaper overall." (Japanese original by Hajime Nakatsugawa and Toru Watanabe, Business News Department) Vocabulary average: usual or normal price calculated from many prices. storage: a place where you keep something for later use. blended rice: cheaper rice often mixed from different kinds of rice. ton: a very heavy amount (1 ton = 1,000 kilograms). professor: a teacher at a university who knows a lot about something. famous-name rice (branded rice): special rice with a name that people know, like "Koshihikari". This rice usually costs more money. agriculture: work for growing plants and farming.
The Mainichi
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
News in Easy English: Government to show rice prices for different parts of Japan
TOKYO -- The Japanese government will soon tell people the prices of rice in supermarkets in different parts of Japan. Now the government shares only one rice price for the whole country every week. Rice prices in supermarkets became high. Many people worry about this. In March, the government started selling stored rice to supermarkets. This rice was cheaper. They wanted rice prices to become lower. But after more than a month, rice prices did not become lower. The government wants to know if some parts of Japan got enough of the stored rice. They will soon show rice prices for each area. Then they can see which area did not get enough rice. They want to fix this problem. Now the government checks prices from around 1,000 supermarkets all over Japan. Then they show the average rice price every week. From April 21 to April 27, the average supermarket price was 4,233 yen for 5 kilograms of rice. (That's about $29.) This price is two times higher than one year ago. Japan has a lot of this stored rice. Most of it is kept in the eastern part of Japan. So it is hard to quickly bring it to supermarkets in western Japan or small towns. Some supermarkets in small towns say they do not get enough of the stored rice. The government heard this, so in April, they made new rules. Now it is easier for stores to share stored rice with other stores. The government hopes this will help make rice prices lower everywhere in Japan. (Japanese original by Hajime Nakatsugawa, Business News Department) Vocabulary government: the group of people who lead a country and make rules. supermarket: a big store that sells food. stored rice: rice that the government keeps to use at a later time. price: how much money you must pay to buy something. average: the middle number, after adding numbers together and dividing them by how many numbers there are. area: a place or part of a country.
The Mainichi
29-04-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
Rice prices in Japan up for 16th straight week, hit new high despite gov't reserve release
TOKYO -- Rice in Japan's supermarkets hit a record-high average of 4,220 yen including tax (some $30) for 5 kilograms over April 14 to 20, the country's agriculture ministry announced April 28, marking a 3-yen rise from the week prior and the 16th consecutive weekly increase. The announcement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries comes as the average has also risen by 2,132 yen ($14.90) compared to the same period last year -- roughly doubling. Over a month has passed since the national government began to release reserve rice stockpiles in hopes of providing relief, but retail prices remain high. About 210,000 metric tons of reserve rice have been put up for sale in two rounds of bidding so far, with around 94%, or 199,270 tons, won by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (JA Zen-Noh). As of April 24, JA Zen-Noh had shipped about 47,000 tons to wholesalers. However, since it generally takes about two to three weeks for wholesalers' orders from JA Zen-Noh to reach supermarkets and other retailers, it is believed that only a limited amount of the reserve rice had reached store shelves during the survey period. Some local stores that procure rice from smaller regional wholesalers have reported that reserve rice sourced by major wholesalers is not reaching them. In response, on April 16 the government revised the rule that in principle prohibited trade of reserve rice between wholesalers. However, this rule was set to apply in principle only from the third round of reserve rice releases, which was held from April 23 to 25 and covered an additional 100,000 tons. Accordingly, local and small- to medium-sized supermarkets may not have yet received sufficient stocks of reserve rice, which is believed to have also affected survey results. Asked why rice prices remain high, Katsuhito Fuyuki, professor of agricultural market studies at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Agricultural Science, said, "It's possible that demand for rice has exceeded the government's forecasts." He added, "Wholesalers and others are anxious over a possible rice shortage in the summer as seen last year and are likely keeping inventories on hand, also possibly contributing to the high prices." (Japanese original by Hajime Nakatsugawa, Niigata Bureau)
