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The story
With the new rice harvest reaching stores, wholesale prices have fallen and some shops are now selling 5kg bags for under ¥2,000 (tax included) — sparking discussion on 5ch. While many welcomed the drop, opinions were split: some praised the agriculture minister for resisting calls to boost production during the price spike, others vented about convenience store rice balls that never came back down after being marked up, and some took aim at farmers who they say cashed in during the high-price period.
What people said
Rice prices crashing. Love it.
@
A bowl of rice is back down to 20 yen and you're still calling it expensive? lol
What have you even been eating this whole time lol
Exactly
Sato's microwave rice packs got jacked up so much it's like, who's even buying that anymore.
Don't just fob us off with "sales" and "campaigns."
Convenience stores bought their rice in bulk at the high price.
They can't budge until that stock clears.
If prices don't fall once they restock this year, that's on them.
The photo in image 3 is old rice, isn't it.
Look closely at image 2 too, it says harvested in Reiwa 7 (2025).
Why are you stating the obvious?
The thread title literally says new rice is hitting the market — which means last year's rice is what's crashing in price.
Do you have zero reading comprehension or what lol
Really shows how short-sighted and reactionary the people demanding he ramp up production were.
How would he know about the guys hoarding it in warehouses?
The market was short, so ramping up production was the obvious call.
He doesn't look like much, but he's got real nerve — genuinely competent.
If they'd boosted production back then, we'd have a glut right now and farmers would be screaming about it instead.
The ones who caused the glut are the guys who sat on the first batch of released reserve rice instead of selling it — that's on them.
Rice farmer?
Or just broke?
Which ex-minister is this guy? (a jab referencing a real politician's infamous "I've never bought rice" gaffe)
I got by telling myself pasta's fine, or okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancake) made from flour and leftover veggies is fine — and along the way my whole lifestyle shifted to where I just don't need much rice anymore.
Someone should be held accountable for causing this.
Are they just going to sweep it under the rug in the end?
Well, that's because Minister Suzuki is competent.
No way, rice is easily the tastiest staple food out there.
People just won't buy it when it's like 4,000 yen for 5kg.
7-Eleven: ………
Me: Uh, hello? Anybody home?
Lawson: ………
FamilyMart: ………
Retail pricing on the shelf and wholesale pricing to vendors run on completely different systems.
Be grateful to wholesalers like JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives).
Background and Key Points
New rice hits Japan’s shelves each autumn once the harvest — labeled by the imperial era year, here “Reiwa 7” (2025) — comes in, and prices reset from whatever the previous crop year’s supply-and-demand left behind. The 2024–25 season saw a well-documented shortage: warehouse hoarding and speculative buying up the chain (not farmers holding back at the source) pushed 5kg bags toward ¥4,000, prompting the government to release emergency reserve rice. Agriculture minister Suzuki drew scrutiny for not ordering an output increase during that spike; with the new harvest now pushing bags back under ¥2,000, posters read that restraint as vindicated.
The thread’s real fault line isn’t the price drop itself — nobody disputed that’s good news — it’s whether Suzuki’s decision was foresight or luck. One camp argues boosting production mid-crisis would have simply created today’s glut a year early, dumping the pain on farmers instead of consumers; the other counters he couldn’t have known hoarders were the bottleneck and that the “obvious” move at the time was still to increase supply. That’s an argument about a counterfactual policy call, not about anything happening in stores now.
What the thread’s convenience-store complaints skip over is the structural reason konbini rice balls haven’t cheapened: retailers like 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart lock in bulk wholesale contracts well ahead of sale, so they’re still working through rice bought at peak prices, and shelf pricing doesn’t move in lockstep with wholesale spot prices the way a supermarket bag might. Readers unfamiliar with JA (the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives), the dominant intermediary between farmers and retailers, may also assume farmers pocketed the shortage-era markup, when much of that margin sits with distributors and wholesalers instead.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “New rice hits the market, prices crash, 5kg now under 2,000 yen tax included wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
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