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The story
A thread on 5ch reported that the price of 10kg of rice has finally dropped to ¥4,000. While some residents who remember paying under ¥2,000 for 5kg grumbled “still too expensive” and “I won’t buy until it’s under ¥2,000,” many others pointed out that during the price spike they switched their staple food to bread or noodles, suggesting the shift away from rice may have become permanent.
What people said
Not buying until it's under ¥2,000
Guess you'll be eating bread or noodles for the rest of your life
Just eat some triple-aged rice then (kokokomai — rice held in storage for 3+ years)
Everything's so expensive lately
Pretty sure it was around ¥1,500
Even with price cuts, people who've drifted away from rice won't come back so easily
Rice is probably under 30% of meals now?
and looking up recipes has expanded my repertoire too
but even at the high end it needs to drop to around ¥2,200
Wonder why
and blended rice was under ¥1,500
Either way, cooking rice at home has become such a hassle that I've decided rice is only for eating out now lol
I'll still eat it when dining out with people
It's done as a staple food
If they don't lower prices after rice got cheaper, people are going to be furious
If the consumption tax on groceries drops to 1%, fewer customers are expected to eat out, so restaurants probably won't cut prices
Dull palates abroad probably can't appreciate how good Japanese rice tastes
No need for that
It's just the fault of the idiots who bought up almost all the stockpile rice at auction and hoarded it
I'll buy it to secure stockpile rice whether they tell me to or not
Background and Key Points
Rice sold under Japan’s staple-food distribution system has historically been priced far below what this thread describes: 5kg bags ran roughly ¥1,000-1,500 as recently as a few years ago, and posters citing ¥2,000-2,500 as “normal” already reflect prices inflated by the 2024-2025 shortage. That spike traces to a poor 2023 harvest combined with panic-buying after the Meteorological Agency’s “megaquake advisory” warnings, which emptied shelves and let both retailers and hoarders push prices well above cost. The government’s release of emergency stockpile rice (bichiku-mai) was meant to correct this, and ¥4,000 for 10kg marks a real, if partial, retreat toward pre-crisis norms.
What the thread actually divides on isn’t whether prices should fall further, but whether the drop matters anymore. One camp treats ¥2,000-for-5kg as the return of a birthright and refuses to buy until then; the other argues, more pointedly, that eighteen months of paying double for rice pushed households onto bread, pasta, and udon permanently, and that habit doesn’t reverse just because the sticker price does. That’s a real behavioral-economics claim about stickiness, not nostalgia, and it’s the more substantive position in the thread.
What outside readers will likely miss is the domestic-politics undercurrent: posts referencing “consumption tax” cuts on groceries and hoarders who “bought up the stockpile at auction” allude to ongoing debate over Japan’s agricultural policy and the auction system that let traders corner stockpile releases, not just retail pricing. Also easy to miss: kokomai (“triple-aged rice”) is a real, cheaper stored-rice category, not a joke — a sign some posters have already adapted rather than waiting out the price.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello!Project) thread “10kg of Rice Finally Drops to ¥4,000”.
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