Why Is 2026 New Rice Cheaper Than Last Year’s Rice in Japan?
I went grocery shopping today and noticed bags marked 新米 (shinmai) in the rice section. Shinmai means newly harvested rice, and seeing it arrive in stores around this time of year is nothing unusual in Japan. What surprised me was the price. I actually stopped and took a photo because I wasn’t expecting the new harvest to be this inexpensive. One 5kg bag of 2026 shinmai was ¥2,100 , while another was ¥2,400 at the supermarket I visited. After the high rice prices Japan has experienced, my first thought was simple: Should I buy extra while it’s cheap? For now, I don’t think there is a need to rush and buy several bags. Rice prices at supermarkets have been trending downward in 2026, while the latest government outlook points to sufficient overall supply. That does not mean prices will continue to fall, but current information does not suggest that ordinary households need to stock up simply because they are worried about running out. For most of us, buying the amount we normally ...