with the ratio of first-grade rice dropping 30 percentage points to 62.6 percent in Akita Prefecture and 41.7 points to 54.7 percent in Yamagata Prefecture. Nationwide, 11 prefectures saw the ...

It is the first time stockpiled rice will be released to ensure smooth distribution. This was previously limited to cases of seriously poor harvests and large-scale disasters.

Masshigura from Aomori Prefecture, Haenuki from Yamagata Prefecture and Hitomebore from Miyagi Prefecture, all in northeastern Japan, are among the rice brands for sale.

Yamagata Prefecture, some 300 kilometers north of Tokyo, is a mountainous region. Around 70% of its land covered by forests and to this day it boasts a long tradition of using that wood in its ...