Japan. “Old-old” rice sold out in an hour

The rice from the state reserves, which Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi called “old-old”, using the kanji for “old” four times, sold out in about an hour after Iris Ohyama launched its online sales.

The doubling of the price of the staple food of the Japanese diet – rice – has become a serious problem for the government. Since March, sales of rice from the state reserves have begun, the first time such a measure has been taken in non-wartime times and not after a natural disaster, but with the aim of stabilizing prices. Rice from the 2023 and 2024 harvests was put up for sale. A total of 310 thousand tons were sold, but this did not affect the growth of rice prices: in March and April, they doubled compared to the same months last year.

New Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, decided a week after his appointment to sell rice from the state reserves not by tender, but at a fixed low price — so-called discretionary contracts.

The low price is planned to be achieved by selling “old” rice from the 2021 harvest. The character for “old” is added to the character for “rice” to indicate that it refers to the previous harvest. In the case of 2021 rice, the character for “old” is added to the word “rice” four times to reflect its age. Minister Koizumi said that sales of the “old-old” 2021 rice from the state reserves will reduce the price from the current 5,000 yen ($34.2) per 5 kilograms to 2,000 ($13.7) or even 1,800 yen ($12.3).

The sales were launched online by Iris Ohyama and Rakuten. A bag of 5 kilograms of rice was sold for 2,000 yen. About an hour after the start of sales, a RIA Novosti correspondent was able to verify that a message appeared on the Iris Ohyama page with an apology that the rice intended for sale today was sold out. Moreover, according to the company’s terms, one person can only buy one bag once a month. For those who missed out, the next sales will take place tomorrow.

On the Rakuten website, as reported by users of the social network X, rice was sold for 1,800 yen for 5 kilograms. About an hour later, it was no longer available at that price on the company’s website; rice from stock was sold for 2,800 yen, which is still almost half the price of what it was in stores.

Iris Ohyama users reported that the site was unavailable for some time, probably due to the influx of people wanting to buy it.

The problem of rising rice prices is becoming fatal for the government headed by Shigeru Ishiba. It cost the previous Minister of Agriculture Taku Eto his job. His statement that he never buys rice because it is given to him as a gift, and in such quantities that it is time to sell it, against the backdrop of rising prices and sometimes empty shelves with rice, caused such a public outcry that, despite his inept excuses, he was forced to resign.

Tags: prices, rice, Japan