Japanese Eating More Rice as Bread Prices Soar
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Tokyo — The Japanese are returning to their staple diet of rice as the soaring price of imported wheat makes Western foods such as bread too expensive for many.
Japanese consumed an average of 135 pounds, 6 ounces of rice each in the 12 months to April, up a pound from the previous year and the first increase in 12 years. That figure is expected to rise again this year as the price of many foodstuffs — particularly imports — show no signs of leveling off.
Rice, however, is cheaper, with a 132-pound bag now costing $141, more than $6 less than a year ago, thanks to better yields.
“I’m making a very conscious effort not to buy bread purely for economic reasons,” a housewife from Yokohama with three children, Mariko Shigeno, said. “We’re eating a lot more rice now. I would guess that we’re eating half the amount of bread we did about six months ago.”
