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The story
With the new rice season underway, rice prices keep falling. New-crop rice has finally dropped into the ¥1,000 range, and supermarkets are seeing lines out the door. A set-meal restaurant in Tokyo has brought back “free rice refills,” winning back customers, and convenience stores are starting to discount their rice balls too. The thread filled up with photos of in-store prices from Seiyu, Don Quijote, Japan Meat, and other chains around the country, showing that last year’s older rice sits unsold even at discount prices while shoppers rush to buy the new crop. Opinions split between those who say old rice is good enough and those who insist it has to be new rice.
With the new rice season here, rice prices keep falling.
Supermarkets have seen huge lines forming. New-crop rice has even dropped into the ¥1,000 range.
“Itt!” sent a reporter to a set-meal restaurant in Tokyo.
Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here
What people said
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Hold it till the company goes under, lol
Getting stuck with 50 tons of your favorite rice makes you the luckiest man in Japan
You guys are the ones who bid the price up, lol
Isn't this the flood-damaged rice from Chiba?!
I hate sharp-eyed citizens like you (a riff on a famous anime villain line)
Agriculture Minister Suzuki:
"Prices should be decided by the market"
Nobody buys it even at fire-sale prices under ¥2,000
Piled up and unsold
Seiyu
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I'd prefer pre-washed rice
Why get in the way of new rice like this
When they could just use it for the stockpile reserves that are running short, or as feed rice
Nobody buys it even under ¥2,000
Japan Meat
New-crop Akitakomachi down from ¥1,999 to ¥1,850 — Don Quijote
Don Quijote's cheap
Might as well just buy rice there from now on, lol
it's producers turning away from rice
If push comes to shove they can just lift the ban on imported rice, so nobody's actually in trouble
If you can only afford to grow expensive rice, you might as well quit already
Old rice is fine by me,
but once new-rice season hits, everything except new rice
mysteriously vanishes from the shelves, so I can't buy it
I only buy new rice because I want the wholesalers to lose money
Also, using new rice for fried rice is a waste
You go ahead and buy the pricey old rice
We'll be buying the cheap new rice
New rice is essential for grilled fish
You can't eat that with old rice
There's something wrong with these people's brains
Beats sitting around the house doing nothing except getting up to use the bathroom
I don't know where it says 5 hours,
but that's got to be old folks with nothing but time on their hands and no job
normal people would rather spend those hours working and earning money
If you all rush to buy here, you'll throw off supply and demand and prices will go up
You're all sitting on stockpiles already, aren't you
Eat through what you've got before buying more
I'll make a special exception and buy cheap right now
No household is dumb enough to stockpile and keep buying — the longer it sits before you eat it, the worse it tastes
There are people out there sitting on enough to sell, you know
I just don't get the mindset of hoarding milled rice
¥3,000 for 10kg
That's about the fair price
On sale: ¥990 for 5kg, ¥2,300 for 10kg
Well, that's the price I'd pay — if it's not that price, I just won't buy, I've already found plenty of alternatives anyway
Looks like people who don't check carefully are getting fooled into buying it
Why would anyone pay that when the 1996 (Heisei 8) crop is ¥2,350
Wait, Heisei?! Seriously?!
Isn't it weird that a 1995 crop is cheap? There's got to be something off about it
Background and key points of this discussion
What sparked debate in the thread was whether the price drop applies to “new-crop rice” or to “last year’s older rice.” Photos from Seiyu and Japan Meat showed old rice going unsold even under ¥2,000, revealing a trend of consumers prioritizing new rice instead. An image purportedly showing Agriculture Minister Suzuki saying “prices should be decided by the market” was also posted, splitting opinion over letting the market set prices. At the same time, there were level-headed comments questioning whether the time and effort of waiting in line is really worth it, and warnings that bulk-buying during a price dip would only distort supply and demand — so this isn’t simply a case of “cheaper prices, great news.” It’s worth noting that all the in-store price photos are individual posts, and differences by time or store location can’t be confirmed from the article alone.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Long lines finally form for new rice in the ¥1,000 range! Set-meal restaurant brings back free refills as customers return, convenience store rice balls get cheaper too.”
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