One of these, the Niigata-born Shinnosuke variety, had 97.3 percent of its harvest classified as first-grade rice. (This article was written by Hironori Kato and Sho Hatsumi.) ...

First-grade rice must contain at least 70 percent high ... It included 270 million yen ($1.75 million) in a supplementary budget for fiscal 2023 for experiments on heat-resistant cultivation ...

The chairman of a government committee on food prices has poured cold water on a proposal to allow the sale of mixed-grade rice in the local market as a solution to the shortage of local white rice.