It's a good policy because there is much high-quality rice from outside Japan.

You know, as much as I hate to really admit this, I do think Japanese rice is the best. I remember being dumbstruck when I first arrived in Japan, and a fetching young native lass told me that Japanese rice was the best. 'Rice is Rice!' I told her, but in the ensuing months I was forced to concede she was in fact correct. Which isn't to say you can't get good rice elsewhere. And isn't something I'll openly concede to many Japanese any time soon, either.

Wow! A Japanese native comment that foreign countries produce good rice - oh the farmers will be rolling in their graves!!

i am a believer that the rice should fit the dish. example, japanese rice with saffron for curry? come on - bleh. and yes, CAL-ROSE!!!!!!!!!

Cal-Rose all the way!!

Thai rice is good.

Indian basmati rice costs five or six times the price of the finest Japanese Koshikari from Niigata. No excuse for that.

Brother, you have no idea. If Japan would removed the tariffs on rice imports, the market would be flooded with cheap, high quality rice. And then people would spend their extra money on other stuff, which would stimulate the economy.

Yes, JeefLee, that's exactly what many, many Japanese seem to believe. It's not only with rice; one of my neighbours once remarked that I must be happy to live in Japan where I can buy such fresh, high quality vegetables. I looked down at the bag of anemic, plastic wrapped produce in my shopping bag and politely agreed.

Well of course there is. Do large numbers of Japanese really believe that the only "high quality rice" in the world is in Japan?!? I recall a blind test taste on TV in the 90s that found Japanese celebrities, etc. couldn't tell the difference between Japanese rice and that grown in California.

Plenty of brainwashing and ignorance will have to be reversed before foreign rice takes its rightful place in the Japanese market.