The average price per 5 kilograms of rice sold at some 1,000 supermarkets in Japan in the week to Sept. 7 topped ¥4,000 for the first time since early June, the agriculture ministry has said.
The average price rose ¥264 from the previous week to ¥4,155 in the week through Sept. 7, up for the second straight week, the ministry said Friday.
This is the steepest increase since data began in March 2022, reflecting the start of sales of this year's new harvest and a decrease in the availability of cheaper government-stockpiled rice.
On Thursday, agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that prices have settled down "to a certain degree," given that the average price was at ¥4,200 when he took office in May.
However, the average price released Friday suggests that the price-curbing effects of government-stockpiled rice are beginning to wane.
Blended rice, including government-stockpiled rice, accounted for 30% of all sales during the week, down from 58% marked between late June and mid-July.
Newly harvested rice and rice sold under brand names comprised 70% of sales. The average price of such rice rose ¥72 to ¥4,344.
In late August, the agriculture ministry decided to extend the deadline for selling government-stockpiled rice since the ministry thought that slow deliveries to retailers made it difficult to sell it all by the original deadline set at the end of last month.
At that time, the ministry said about 100,000 tons out of the contracted total of 280,000 tons remain undelivered.
High prices for Japan's staple grain have been one of the major factors driving the country's inflation, which has stayed above 3% every month this year, with food inflation topping 6%.
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