“Reiwa Rice Riots”
What if McDonalds ran out of Hamburgers or Chic-Fil-a had no chicken wouldn’t those be national emergencies? Tourists are said to be eating Japan out of rice, depleting the local food supply. Rice has long been a major staple in Japan, where people have been known to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the majority of the population can’t imagine their lives without it. So when supplies started disappearing from store shelves this summer, it created a panic in Japan, with people wanting to know what was causing the sudden shortage. According to media reports, the shortage was affecting suppliers around the country, and interviews revealed many wholesalers were concerned, with one in the top producing region of Niigata Prefecture saying they only had 10 tons of rice left at a time when they would usually have 240 tons. Retailers echoed these concerns, saying they’d never seen anything like it, and when nationwide stock levels at the end of June were revealed to be the lowest in 25 years, many stores implemented purchase restrictions, limiting sales to one bag per person. By July, a large number of retailers were unable to provide any rice at all.
The situation has been so dire that the media has even coined a term for it Reiwa Rice Riots, with “Reiwa” being the current imperial era. While there haven’t been riots in the traditional sense of the word, the shortage has led to bad behavior in terms of panic buying and with stocks remaining low, things are yet to improve. So what led to the shortage of rice in Japan? Farmers and wholesalers pointed out thatthe rapid increase in consumption of Japanese food by overseas tourists played a factor in the shortage, exacerbating the imbalance between supply and demand. With visitor arrivals numbering over 3 million per month.
Curry rice is one of the absolute all-stars of Japanese cuisine, and it earned that status by being a friend not only to your taste buds but to your wallet too. It isn’t as cheap as it used to be. If you’re looking to stretch your budget, whipping up a big pot of curry roux with various veggies and meat is an easy way to have a couple of filling, fortifying meals ready for the next few days without spending a lot of money on the ingredients. Japan’s agriculture ministry blames shortage on tourists’ vast demand for rice and low crop yields last year. “The increase in demand by foreign tourists has also contributed,” Itakura said, and added that “we are not in a situation of facing shortages of rice.” The trading price for rice has hit a 30-year high, wholesalers are running low on stock and some supermarkets have decided to further raise prices and limit purchases, according to Japanese news reports. The situation is expected to continue until September, when rice from this year’s harvest will become available. As diets in Japan become more westernized, demand for rice has fallen. Amid the country’s demographic crisis, lower rice prices have discouraged younger people from becoming farmers of the cereal, resulting in increasingly elderly growers and abandoned rice paddies. Perhaps the Reiwa Rice Riots will prompt the government to rethink its approach to supporting rice farmers. Especially now, as tourists eat Japan out of rice and prove there is growing demand for the Japanese staple.
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August 27th Birthdays
1986 – Kayla Elwell, 1986 – Alexa Pena Vega, 1970 – Chandra Wilson, 1976 – Sarah Chalke
551 – Confucius, 1980 – Aaron Paul, 1993 – Blake Jenner, 1982 – Patrick Adams