Japan's government has announced it will release one fifth of the country's emergency rice stockpile, equivalent to 210,000 tons, to combat the steep price of rice that has made the staple food unaffordable to most residents.
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00:00Across Japanese cities, sold-out signs dot restaurants as record-high prices hit one of the country's staple foods, rice.
00:102024 was a year of record heat, record tourists, and panic-buying over threats of typhoons and megaquakes.
00:18Demand for rice soared, and with that, the price surged to more than 80 percent from the year before, becoming unaffordable for Japan's residents.
00:28We're trying to reduce the number of things we buy.
00:32We have a lot of buckwheat noodles, udon noodles, and yakisoba.
00:43It's not just Japan's residents feeling the strain.
01:10To combat this steep price of rice, Japan's government has announced a solution, releasing one-fifth of its emergency stockpile, just over 200,000 tons of rice, to stabilize the market.
01:40But it may not be enough for rice retailers.
01:43This is not the first time Japan's government has tapped into its rice reserves, but it is the first time they are for distribution issues.
02:09The government now has one year to replenish their stockpile, while the rest of the country waits for the price of this staple food to finally go down.
02:19Ryan Woo and Harrell Hughes for Taiwan Plus.