Abstract

This article examines the largely unexplored topic of Japan’s foreign trade in rice during the Meiji period. In the middle decades of that era, japonica-type rice became a major Japanese export, highly esteemed in Western countries. In the 1890s, however, Western markets for Japanese rice shrank as the price of the grain rose; meanwhile, crop failures in Japan, combined with the ready availability of cheaper, long-grain indica varieties from Southeast Asia, prompted huge imports of rice; and the steady increase in per capita consumption drove Japan to become a chronic net importer of the commodity after the turn of the century.

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