Okay, this isn’t the most interesting or serious thing ever, but Japan is out of rice. 👀 I knew I should have snapped a photo at my local supermarket, but it’s not that hard to imagine empty shelves. Edit: Took one the other day!

I’m not sure how it is in more rural locations, but the typical 1 – 10 KG bags of short grain white rice you’d usually find in many city supermarkets have been replaced with air for the past few weeks. Restaurants still seem totally fine, though. Thankfully, there’s still potatoes, pasta/noodles, and bread. 😋

There are a few reasons as to why there’s a shortage going on now. One of those reasons, however, is DEFNITELY not this as Japan Today stated: “Other factors include lower harvests caused by hot weather and water shortages, as well as increased demand related to record numbers of foreign tourists.” You can find similar statements on other Japan-focused English news sites and in Japanese articles too. 😂

Sure, the statement I highlighted isn’t even saying all the blame is on international tourists, but just having it there is most likely going to leave a negative impression in the minds of readers lol. But then again, that’s the point.

Now, for an actual main factor:

[…]the acreage reduction policy which decreases the amount of land devoted to cultivation. Under acreage reduction, rice production is cut to raise market prices, and the government provides subsidies to rice farmers who switch to other crops such as wheat or soybeans. Japan has continued this policy for over 50 years.[…]

Why has Japan been hit with rice shortages, soaring prices despite normal crops? – The Mainichi

After reading up on this some more, it seems like Japan isn’t alone in doing this kind of thing. And this isn’t the first time something like this has happened here. As far as I know, there’s also an emergency stockpile of rice, but we aren’t exactly in an emergency now, so all people can do is wait for things to go back to normal. Unfortunately, I’m down to the bottom of my bag of rice…

Just as I was getting into making cute bentos. 😫