News in Easy English: More Japanese people in Gunma buy foreign rice as prices rise

The Mainichi

13 hours ago

In Gunma Prefecture, more Japanese people are buying rice from other countries because Japanese rice is expensive and sometimes hard to find.
Gunma has many people from other countries living there. Many shops and convenience stores run by people from Asia and South America sell rice from places like Thailand, India and Pakistan.
At Alh Mini Mart and Restaurant in Tatebayashi, you can buy more than 10 kinds of rice from different countries. The manager, Aung Tin, is from Myanmar. Aung Tin said that most buyers were foreigners before, but now more Japanese people come to buy rice. The shop also sells California rice.
The store sells both Japonica rice (the kind Japanese people usually eat) and long-grain Indica rice, like basmati and jasmine rice. Basmati rice is used in biryani, a dish with rice, meat, and spices. At the store restaurant, they serve biryani and cook it by layering rice and other foods in a rice cooker. Aung Tin said, "The key is to keep the rice firm when cooking."
Gunma Prefecture has a high number of foreign residents, about 4.3% of the population. Because of this, there are more shops and restaurants selling foreign rice.
At Chyandora, a convenience store near JR Maebashi Station, they sell jasmine rice from Thailand and Vietnam. About 30% of the customers are Japanese. Neupane Bhesham Raj, the store's manager from Nepal, said, "With the rise in rice prices in Japan, purchases by Japanese customers significantly increased." He also said, "The taste is quite similar to Japanese rice."
More companies are also importing rice from other countries, but prices are going up. The demand for foreign rice is rising in Gunma.
(Japanese original by Tetsuya Shoji, Maebashi Bureau)
Vocabulary
import: to bring products from another country to sell
tariff: a tax paid when bringing goods into a country
Japonica rice: the short, sticky rice usually eaten in Japan
Indica rice: long, thin rice, like basmati and jasmine
biryani: a dish with rice, meat, and spices
population: the number of people living in a place
demand: how much people want to buy something