Sticky Times for Rice As Japan Breaks Bread

Hattori takes a back-to-basics approach. He tut-tuts about the shift away from the traditional Japanese diet of rice, vegetables and meats. Not only that, he sniffs, more young people are forgetting how to use chopsticks properly. He argues that the Japanese people have "DNA more suitable for rice than bread." Japanese society must abandon the its postwar dream of "a steak as big as a shoe," he said.

The soul of rice farming in Japan is represented by people such as Toshiyuki Tsuboya, 48, a member of the 16th generation of rice growers in his family.

Dressed in a blue jumpsuit and sneakers, he recently walked some visitors to the edge of his rice fields in Niigata. His chest swelled with pride as he pulled up a leafy green stalk. In one swift motion, he sliced open the bottom with a pocket knife to show a tiny golden rice grain working its way up through the plant.

"See?" he said, motioning toward the acres of scenic green fields. "This is the best place, the best weather, the best water."

There is nothing Tsuboya loves to do more at the end of the day than munch on a rice ball with a bowl of miso soup, he said. But "even my own family doesn't eat rice," he grumbled. "They say it's too much trouble, because you always have to have something else with it."

Niigata prefecture, on Japan's west coast, is one of the country's biggest agricultural regions. Farmers grow many crops here -- soybeans, tulips, peaches and pears -- but it is still rice that stirs their passion.

"It is widely known to the Japanese that [Niigata] rice is the best in Japan," bragged Akira Shinoda, the mayor of Niigata city, who also spoke highly of the region's sake, or rice wine.

Tokyo resident Chika Yoshida is typical of the younger Japanese who analysts say are responsible for the decline. Rice doesn't fit into their time-crunched, on-the-go lifestyle.

"Growing up, I ate rice every morning," said Yoshida, 30, whose parents' generation ate some variation of steamed rice, fried rice, rice porridge or rice-flour noodles or cakes at every meal. These days, she rarely has time for breakfast -- and while it's not difficult to make rice, she said, "it takes too much time."

The shift to Western foods has had other implications for Japanese -- notably, their waistlines. The trend is most evident among men and children. In 1988, 18.9 percent of Japanese children were considered obese, according to a survey. By 2005, the percentage had risen to 24.3.

Even the most optimistic promoters concede that rice bread, designer rices and food education can do only so much. So, many farmers and merchants are looking west -- to China. With the right pitch, they say, Japanese rice can become a status symbol for that fast-growing country's newly rich. At 10 to 20 times the price of locally grown rice, it's truly a luxury, said Yukio Takahashi, an agricultural policy official in Niigata, but it could take off.

Hokari, the young rice merchant, dreams of sending his product abroad someday to an even more desirable market. Where?

"Las Vegas," he said.