Japan Pauses Stockpile Sales as Retailers Snap Up Rice

Japan paused its sale of rice reserves after seeing a fast response from retailers, in a positive sign for the government’s efforts to temper soaring rice prices and ease consumers’ cost-of-living concerns ahead of an election this summer.

Major players including Rakuten Group Inc. and Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp., the parent company of popular discount store Don Quijote, were among the some 70 retailers to secure a portion of the 200,000 metric tons of the staple grain on sale Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.