The new batch of reserve rice released by the Japanese government to stabilize rice prices has begun to be sold in limited quantities in Hokkaido, Kagoshima Prefecture and Fukuoka Prefecture. There are a long queue of thousands of people in front of supermarkets in many places, and some consumers are queuing up to buy rice all night.
Japanese media reported on the 9th that some retailers in Hokkaido began to sell government reserve rice on the same day, and the number of customers in line caused heated discussion. In a rice shop in Sapporo, thousands of people lined up for hours, and 1,000 bags of reserved rice were quickly sold out. This batch of rice was produced in 2022 and is called "Old Chen rice" by Japanese media. Each bag is 5 kilograms and costs 2,150 yen (about 107 yuan), which is about half of the market retail price.
Kagoshima Prefecture, southern Japan, will start to sell government reserve rice on the 8th. In a supermarket in Kagoshima City, the capital, before the door opened, about 1,200 customers lined up outside the store, and some customers even lined up at the store at 1 a.m. According to the purchase restriction policy, each household can only purchase one bag of reserve rice.
The long queues for purchasing government reserve rice also occurred in Fukuoka Prefecture, Hiroshima Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture and other places. Many customers said that the rising rice prices have bothered them, and the relatively cheap reserve rice has "helped a lot".
This is the fourth batch of reserve rice released by the Japanese government since March this year. Unlike the first three batches, this batch of reserve rice was not passed through intermediaries, but was placed in the form of a "direct supply retailer". According to Japanese government requirements, retailers must complete sales by the end of August. Previously, this batch of reserve rice had been sold through some online retailers.
Since the summer of 2024, due to factors such as extreme high temperatures, Japanese rice prices have continued to rise. In August last year, the meteorological department issued a warning that the possibility of a major earthquake in the South China Sea trough in the eastern Pacific Ocean increased, causing people to hoard rice, and Japan once experienced a "rice waste". With the launch of new rice, the "rice shortage" has eased, but the rice prices are still high.
Source: CCTV News Client
