The Rice Price

Before we moved to Japan, we were fully aware of the high cost of living here. Although our home isn't in Tokyo or Osaka, the two most expensive cities in the world, we've still had to adjust our expectations when we go shopping for clothing, cleaning supplies, and food. The one item that we didn't expect to have to pay a lot for, however, was rice. Rice. It's probably one of the first things that comes to mind when most non-Japanese people think about Japan, and rightly so. It's ubiquitous.
So my rudimentary understanding of economics led me to believe that a commodity so common would not cost too much. After all, a small bag of rice in America is less than a dollar, and I'm pretty sure it's just as cheap in Brazil (rice and beans are the meal of choice for most economically disadvantaged Brazilians). And yet a 2 kilo bag of rice here costs the equivalent of $10 to $15! Considering that I see rice paddies everywhere, how can this be so? Well, we found the answer the other day, in an excellent book entitled The Japanese Today. I couldn't hope to explain this as well as Mr. Reischauer, so I'll let him tell you in his own words:

Generous government price supports help maintain Japanese rice prices that are five to ten times those of the world market. Economically it makes no sense for Japanese to grow rice, but lingering sentimental feelings about the small family farm as the foundation of the nation and outmoded strategic worries about the need to produce one's own staple food (even though Japan is already dependent on foreign lands for about half its total food supply) make the Japanese determined to maintain their agricultural sector, however heavy a drain it may be on the economy as a whole (pg 303-4)

To me, this phenomenon speaks volumes about Japan, although five months of living here has not made me an expert by any means. What I do know is that, when we were in America a few weeks ago, we were pretty tempted to smuggle some cheap 80-cent bags of long-grain rice back into Japan with us. Who would have ever thought we'd want to bring rice to Japan?