Japanese Still Crave Freshly Cooked White Rice

Most Eat Rice at Least Once a Day

A survey in Japan found that 86.8% of people consume white rice at least once a day. It was jointly conducted by the web marketing company Nexer and the rice retailer Mizuhoya, targeting 500 respondents, The largest segment of respondents, at 30.8%, said that they eat white rice twice a day. The results show that even though the consumption of other staples like bread and noodles continues to rise, Japan’s food culture is still rooted in rice consumption.

Nearly 80% of the people surveyed said they feel rice is delicious when consuming it. More specifically, 79.7% found freshly cooked rice delicious, while 35.0% and 28.3%, respectively, felt that way when eating onigiri (rice balls) and newly harvested rice.

When asked what they do to enjoy delicious rice, the top response was to choose newly harvested rice, at 42.7%. In addition, around 30% pointed to either adjusting the cooking method, changing the rice variety, or selecting rice from a certain region.

Rather than simply spending money on premium rice or high-end rice cookers, many people take other special steps to make their rice taste better, such as the following examples mentioned by the survey respondents: “I buy brown rice and mill just enough each time for one week’s consumption” (woman in her fifties); “I take pre-chilled rice and soak it for three to four hours in cold mineral water before cooking it” (man in his forties).

Data Sources

• Data from survey on rice consumption (Japanese) from Nexer, in collaboration with Mizuhoya.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)