Rice prices skyrocket, Japanese fly to Korea to buy rice

The skyrocketing price of rice has caused many Japanese people to buy rice from Korea to bring back home - Photo: HANKYUNG

Retail rice prices in Japan have risen for 13 consecutive weeks, and are at their highest since data related to rice prices began to be compiled, recorded in March 2022.

Faced with this situation, some Japanese people have bought rice in Korea to bring back home to use. Just like Japan, rice is the main dish, indispensable on the Korean dinner table.

Furthermore, Japanese people only need to fly 2 hours and 30 minutes to buy rice at a cheaper price from their "neighboring brother" Korea.

“My mission in Seoul (South Korea) was to buy rice and return home. Since rice in Japan is very expensive right now, I decided to buy rice in Korea and bring it back. In Korea, you have to go to the import-export plant quarantine counter and fill out a series of declaration forms. However, these declaration forms are available, so the procedure is very simple.

“Just present the required declaration forms and bring your goods to the inspection counter and you’re done,” a social media user named A shared a tip so that many other Japanese people can also buy rice in Korea to bring back.

Rice prices in Japan have been rising abnormally since the summer of 2024, or about the past 10 months.

According to experts' analysis, rice prices in the "land of the rising sun" suddenly increased due to reduced production due to unusual heat and partly because the Japanese government responded relatively slowly when the new rice shortage broke out.

In addition, the tourism boom has led to an over-tourism of tourists, which has increased the demand for sushi and other rice-based dishes. Rumors of a “super earthquake” have also caused panic buying of rice, which has also contributed to the rice shortage.

So far, Tokyo has released rice reserves twice to curb rising rice prices, but to no avail.

Japan has about 1 million tons of emergency rice in reserve, which is stored at about 300 facilities across the country. Each year, the country will buy about 200,000 tons of rice to store and resell after 5 years, mainly as animal feed.

According to Hankyung newspaper (Korea), a locality in Japan is reducing the number of times rice is served during lunchtime at schools due to a lack of rice.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/gia-gao-tang-cao-nguoi-nhat-dong-loat-qua-han-quoc-de-mua-gao-20250422144731629.htm