Trend of Rice Consumption in Japan

Toshiyuki Kako

kako@kobe-u.ac.jp

Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe University

Abstract

Major purposes of my presentation are, first, to review the supply and demand balance of rice in the last 55 years in Japan, and second, to make projections of rice consumption in the future. Following is the major findings.

1. Per capita rice consumption of rice producing households declined much faster than that of non-rice producing households in recent years. Households with higher income purchased smaller amount of rice, and paid higher prices for rice.

2. Estimation result of per capita rice consumption using time series data of 1980-2001 showed that rice demand elasticity with respect to final consumption expenditure was –0.2, and with respect to family size was 0.56.

3. Per capita rice consumption was projected to keep declining in the future, 60.2 kg in 2010. Both of total rice production and consumption will keep declining in the near future.