Japanese Wholesalers' Group to Sell Rice Coupon for 477 yen

Tokyo, Dec. 12 (Jiji Press)--The price of a limited-time rice coupon to be sold to municipalities in Japan will go down from the usual 500 yen to a uniform 477 yen, the national federation of rice wholesalers' mutual aid cooperative associations said Friday.

Costs related to the coupons were cut as much as possible in order to lower the sales price, said the federation, known as Zenbeihan, which will issue the coupons, starting as early as late December.

The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, or Zen-noh, on Thursday said that it will sell its rice coupons to municipalities at prices 10-20 yen lower than 500 yen.

Zenbeihan has a share of about 80 pct of rice coupons sold across Japan.

Both Zenbeihan and Zen-noh "have slashed costs as much as possible so consumers can use rice coupons easily," agriculture minister Norikazu Suzuki told a press conference on Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]