Japanese and Imported Rice, an Update

choi

Hiroko Tabuchi, Rethinking Rice Loyalty; Worried about radiation and high prices, moe Japanese turn to imported grain. New York Times, July 20, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/2 ... g-rice-loyalty.html
(rice from from China, Australia and the United States)

Quote:

"A broader concern is Japan’s deflationary economy, which has chipped away at incomes over the last decade and made consumers less wedded to expensive brands.

"Until recently, domestic consumers had seemingly been happy with the arrangement, paying up to 5,000 yen, about $62, for a 10-kilogram bag of Japonica, the sticky, short-grain rice favored here — almost 10 times the going rate globally for the more common, long-grain variety.

Note:
(a) Beisia   ベイシア

* "社名は、『bene』（ラテン語で「良い」、「善」を意味する）と『iseya』（前身の商号）を合わせた造語である。" Ja.wikipedia.org
(translation: The name of the company is combination of bene (French for "good") and Iseya (the founding name))
(b) Kappa Create  かっぱ寿司
http://www.kappa-create.co.jp/

* The green boys in the home page are
kappa (folklore)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_(folklore)
(河童; "typically depicted as roughly humanoid in form, and about the size of a child. Their scaly, reptilian skin ranges in color from green to yellow or blue.  Kappa supposedly inhabit the ponds and rivers of Japan and have various features to aid them in this environment, such as webbed hands and feet"; seen as mischievous troublemakers or trickster figures)

Despite a former Japanese colony, Taiwan does not have the folklore.
(c) Matsuya Foods Co, Ltd  松屋フーズ
http://www.matsuyafoods.co.jp/

Pronounced foozu, フーズ is katakana for "foods."

(d) The report says of in Japan rice imports, "which are all but shut out by a 778 percent tariff. Since 1995, the government has imported about 700,000 tons of rice tariff-free annually."

Japan; Member information. World Trade Organization, undated
www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/japan_e.htm
("Japan has been a WTO member since 1 January 1995")
(e)
(i) The report quotes "Ryo Kanayama, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Walmart [Japan]."

The Japanese surname Kanayama is 金山.
(ii) The report also quotes a farmer surnamed KUCHIY  朽木 (朽ちる 【くちる】 (vi): "to rot; to decay").

(f) Toshiyuki KAKO/ Kobe University Graduate School of Agricultural Science   
加古 敏之/ 神戸大学 大学院 農学研究科

In Japanese, graduate school is 大学院. As for the undergraduate counterpart, it is 農学部 ("Faculty of Agriculture" in English).
(g)  Ten No Tsubu   天 の つぶ（福島9号）

tsubu 粒 (n)
(h) Japan-Cooperative General Research Institute  ＪＣ総研 (pronounced JC-so-ken)
http://www.jc-so-ken.or.jp/