Photo/Illutration Packages of new rice cultivated this year in Kochi Prefecture are displayed at Takahashi Rice Shop located in the prefecture on Aug. 20. (Kazunori Haga)

It has been about one month since I first saw a sign in the rice aisle of my local supermarket in Tokyo that said, “The rice supply is unstable. Please limit your purchases to two bags per family.”

But the shelves have remained practically empty, rendering the request redundant. And prices have really skyrocketed. A 5-kilogram bag of a certain brand of pre-washed rice costs almost 1,000 yen ($6.88) more now.

On a major online retail site, many items are marked “out of stock.”

But at the trusty neighborhood rice store I patronize, the owner reassured me, “We are fully stocked. And we aren’t raising prices either.”

The store deals directly with rice farmers in various parts of Japan and has secured a sufficient supply to fulfill its regular customers’ orders.

Is rice really in short supply or not? The farm ministry claims there is no supply-demand problem, but its unavailability in some areas shows an obviously uneven supply situation.

The brutally hot summer last year is said to have degraded the quality of rice. It has also been argued that the influx of foreign visitors must have contributed to increased rice consumption.

But neither could have been the main cause of the scarcity, so I turned to a book by Masayuki Ogawa titled “Nihon no Kome Mondai” (literally, “Japan’s rice problems”).

There, I thought I found the root of the present problem.

In the book, Ogawa explains rice issues from historical turning points, such as the year when Japan achieved its rice self-sufficiency and the year when the government fully started the "policy of not allowing rice farming" through production adjustment.

The explanation is interesting.

Ogawa points out that the government’s sole interest has always been to “prevent a rice glut.”

For this reason, the author argues, the government lacked a long-term vision and never gave serious consideration to how idle rice fields might be used during periods of production adjustment.

By pursuing a rigid tunnel-vision policy aimed solely at never producing surplus rice, the government appears to have invited a situation where even a minor irregularity could cause a crisis.

My neighborhood rice store recommended that I try a “heat-tolerant variety,” which I purchased and cooked in an earthenware pot.

As I savored “okoge,” the deliciously browned clusters of rice at the bottom of the pot, I really hoped that future generations will always know how good rice can taste.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 21

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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