With Japanese rice prices going crazy, can California rice win over our Japanese taste-testers?

It’s a ‘90s flashback as Calrose rice once again steps into the spotlight in Japan.

After many years of near-zero inflation, prices for consumer goods are now rising rapidly in Japan. Rice, in particular, has become what economic thinktanks call, when using scholarly terminology, “stupidly expensive.”

Up until about a year ago, if you went to the supermarket in Japan to buy a five-kilogram (11-pound) bag of rice, you’d find plenty of options around 2,000 yen (US$13.25). Some might be more expensive, especially premium brands or pre-washed varieties, and some might be a little cheaper if the store was having a sale, but for the most part, you could get a five-kilo sack of rice for about 2,000 yen.

But now?

As you can see in the above photo, the price of rice has skyrocketed, with five-kilogram bags now in the 3,500-to-4,000 range. When prices first started shooting up last summer, many assumed that the cause was poor harvests from the previous year, but even after 2024’s crops came in last fall, prices didn’t come back down, and some experts say the real root of the problem is Japanese government agricultural policies which restrict how much rice farmers can produce in order to keep prices high.

Whatever the reason, the price of rice doubling within a year is a major concern for people in Japan, where rice is the core of many meals. So when our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa went to the store and looked at the rice section, he was very intrigued when he saw this.

It’s not just the 2,980-yen price that makes that five-kilo bag of rice different from the others, it’s its country of origin too. That lower-priced variety is Calrose rice, and the “Cal” part comes from “California,” where Calrose rice is grown.

Unlike the long-grain rice often grown in Western countries, Calrose is a medium-grain variety that’s considered to have many similarities with Japanese rice. As a matter of fact, Calrose rice had a brief period of fame in Japan back in the ‘90s, when a domestic rice shortage in 1993 led to increased imports of the California rice.

▼ 米国カリフォルニア産カルローズ米 = Calrose rice, grown in California, U.S.A.

All else equal, cheaper is obviously better when grocery shopping, but was all else truly equal here? There was only one way to find out, so Seiji bought a bag of Calrose and brought it back to SoraNews24 HQ for taste-testing.

Opening it up and looking at the uncooked grains, he couldn’t see any visual differences from the Japanese-grown rice he’s spent his whole life cooking and eating.

Calrose doesn’t require any unique cooking method, either, so Seiji just whipped up a batch in the rice cooker in the same way he always does. Popping open the lid when the cooking cycle was finished, once again it looked just like a pot of freshly cooked Japanese rice.

Then it was time to scoop some into a bowl…

…and give it a taste.

So what’s Seiji’s impression of this culinary visitor from California?

“Visually, I don’t feel like there are any differences between Calrose and Japanese rice, and after eating it, I still don’t feel like there are any differences. From the fluffy texture to the aroma and sweetness, this is exactly what I expect Japanese rice to be like, and I’m really surprised by it!”

If he’s really pressed to find a difference, Seiji would say that Calrose feels slightly less chewy than some of Japan’s premium-priced domestic rice varieties like koshihikari and yumepirika. Again, though, that’s not a difference between Calrose and Japanese rice, but a difference between Calrose and premium Japanese rice, which is also the same difference that’s present between most types of Japanese rice and the country’s premium varieties. Especially if he was eating in a restaurant, where the rice was accompanied by other dishes, Seiji is certain he wouldn’t be able to discern any difference between Calrose and Japanese rice.

Thoroughly impressed, Seiji next decided to get the opinions of the rest of our Japanese-born-and-raised team that was in the office that day, so he dished up a serving for each of them.

There were more than a few skeptic faces in the group, with multiple members telling Seiji that he’d dished up too large of a portion for them, and that they’d just have a single taste. Still, he gave them each a generous serving…

…and the cleaned plates are testament to how many people ended up agreeing with Seiji’s positive assessment.

“This tastes and feels exactly like Japanese rice,” said fellow reporter Ahiruneko. “It’s so much better than I thought it was going to be,” added Go Hatori. Go, it turns out, has actually tried Calrose before, but that was quite some time ago. “It’s so much better than the California rice I tried a long time ago, and almost entirely the same as Japanese rice. If you had to say what’s different, it’s a little drier than Japanese rice, but this would be perfect for ochazuke (rice with green tea poured over it) or fried rice.”

P.K. Sanjun was quick to jump in with “I think calling it ‘drier’ will give people the wrong impression. It’s not dry like Thai rice is. I’d say it’s maybe just a little less chewy than Japanese rice, but if I were eating Calrose in a casual restaurant with other dishes as part of a set meal, I absolutely wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between it and Japanese rice.”

The lone dissenting opinion came from Mariko Ohanabatake. “I don’t really like the aroma and texture very much. Compared to expensive varieties like koshihikari, it doesn’t have as much chewiness. But I don’t think Calrose feels different from the kind of Japanese rice they serve at chain restaurants.”

There’s currently no sign that retail rice prices are going to be coming down anytime soon in Japan, so for the time being Seiji, and a lot of other members of our team, are happy to have this lower-cost alternative.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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