Record rice prices in Japan

[Anchor]

What is the situation with rice prices in Japan that travelers to Korea are taking back heavy bags of rice?

Due to soaring rice prices, Japanese people are substituting rice with barley rice or bread, and some schools have reduced the serving of rice in their meals.

This is Hwang Jin-woo reporting from Tokyo.

[Report]

This is a lunchbox company in Japan celebrating its 104th anniversary.

For the first time since its founding, they are mixing barley with rice for their rice dishes.

Rice prices have doubled in the past year, but they cannot raise the price of lunchboxes, so this is a desperate measure they came up with.

[Masato Sadake/Lunchbox Manufacturer Representative: "If it goes over 1,000 yen, I think customers might hesitate a bit to buy."]

The same goes for this chicken lunchbox at a convenience store.

They reduced the amount of expensive rice and added spaghetti instead, keeping the price frozen.

The situation is similar at homes.

[Japanese Rice Consumer: "Buying rice at this price is not reasonable. I am coping with meals using pasta or noodles."]

The retail price of a 5kg bag of rice in Japan recently reached 4,217 yen, which is about 42,000 won, and every week the record for its highest price is being broken.

The price of rice for school meals has also risen significantly, which has started to affect the lunches of young students.

In one area of Osaka, they decided to reduce the serving of rice from three times a week to two and serve bread once.

The government has released 210,000 tons of stored rice through two emergency measures, but there are no signs of a drop in rice prices.

The Japanese government has decided to release more stored rice every month until the first new rice harvest this summer, starting with 100,000 tons this month.

This is Hwang Jin-woo from KBS News in Tokyo.