The “Packaged Rice Industry Study”: In fact, “Sato no Gohan” was not a monopoly!

Packaged rice” is a growing market

Japanese rice is too expensive.

In June 2012, the average retail price of a 5 kg bag of rice was 2,044 yen, but this May, the price more than doubled to 4,285 yen. It is now becoming a luxury item.

Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who assumed the post of Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries on May 21, is struggling to keep up, but prices of brand-name rice have remained high, and the overall price has yet to fall.

In this situation, packaged rice that can be eaten immediately by simply heating it up in the microwave is suddenly attracting attention. Journalist Ryoko Yamaguchi, who is well versed in agriculture, speaks of this trend.

In addition to the increase in the number of elderly people and single-person households, the soaring price of rice has made large bags of rice unsalable. Five-kilogram bags used to be the norm, but now two-kilogram bags sell well. Even in the prepared food section of supermarkets, more and more people are picking up cooked rice. This year we are facing a serious rice shortage due to the previous policy of reducing rice acreage, but in the long run, the demand for rice is already decreasing rapidly.
In many cases, when one goes to the sales floor of a supermarket, packaged rice is displayed in the space previously occupied by bags of rice. Packaged rice is a product that allows for greater sales with less rice. It is also easy to transport, and I think there is a good chance that it will continue to be sold even after the rice shortage is resolved.

At its peak in 1962, the Japanese consumed 118.3 kg of rice per person per year, but this figure has now dropped to about 50 kg per person. It is true that packaged rice is more expensive than regular rice, but the days of cooking and eating large quantities of rice may be over.

As if to symbolize this, the market for packaged rice is growing. Mr. Katsuyoshi Watanabe of the Secretariat of the Japan Packaged Rice Association speaks of this.

Last year, our association produced 239,962 tons of packaged rice. This was a 10.9% increase over the previous year and the largest figure ever. The recent growth is deeply related to the COVID-19 crisis. At the time, many of the supplies distributed by local governments to homebound patients and others contained packaged rice. People who ate them found them “convenient and tasty,” and what had previously been an emergency ration was now recognized as an everyday food. Packaged rice is mainly divided into “retort-packed rice” and “aseptically packaged rice.” The former is cooked rice that is sealed in a container and heat sterilized, while the latter is rice that is sterilized before cooking, cooked, and then sealed and packaged in a clean room. Today, most packaged rice is aseptically packaged.

The first aseptically packaged rice was launched by Sato Foods in 1988. Satoh’s Gohan,” which is still number one in sales, was the pioneer.

It is an extraordinarily successful product, producing 1.23 million servings a day, or 400 million servings a year. Foods that contain moisture will spoil if exposed to air. Therefore, Sato Foods developed a container using “Nagamochi Film,” which has an oxygen absorbing function. This film absorbs oxygen from the inside of the package while preventing air from entering. Sato Shokuhin has always been the largest manufacturer of packaged mochi. Since Sato Foods was the first company in the world to develop the technology for aseptic packaging of individual mochi, we are taking full advantage of this strength,” said Takao Shigemori, food analyst.

Last year, Satoh Foods invested 4.5 billion yen to expand its Seiro Factory (Niigata Prefecture), a plant dedicated to packaged rice, in response to growing demand for packaged rice. Next year, the company plans to invest 8 billion yen to further increase production.

Is “Sato no Gohan” still the dominant force in the packed rice industry?　No, there are many strong rivals in this market.

Mr. Shigemori, the aforementioned “Sato no Gohan” is the best tasting rice pack,” says Mr. Shigemori, and continues, “I personally enjoyed Toyo Suisan’s “Attaka Gohan” the most.

Although Toyo Suisan was a late entrant into the packaged rice market in 2001, it is produced in a factory with the same level of hygiene control as a sterile hospital room, and has a long shelf life of approximately 10 months. The company is also particular about the way it cooks its rice, which is done while pressurizing the rice in its own trays. In this way, water penetrates to the center of each grain of rice, resulting in fluffy, sticky, and sweet rice.

In addition, Toyo Suisan has a wide variety of lentil side dishes such as “Saba no mizore-ni (mackerel stewed in grated radish),” which is made with seafood, as well as “Maruchan” brand cup noodles, making it an excellent source of rice accompaniments.

Highest sales volume of PB products

While Sato Foods and Toyo Suisan are both food product companies, Iris Oyama, which entered the market in 2003, came into the industry from a completely different industry, that of a household appliance manufacturer. The Sendai-based company entered the rice milling business in partnership with Butai Farm, a producer and seller of vegetables and rice. According to Chairman Kentaro Oyama (79), “As a Sendai-based company, we started this business as part of the recovery from the earthquake in 2011.

Iris Ohyama’s packaged rice, ‘Delicious Low-Temperature Rice,’ is a popular product that has sold more than 600 million servings in total. Because rice oxidizes at high temperatures, it is stored, milled, and packaged at a factory where the temperature is kept below 15°C. This allows the rice to be packaged without the use of PH adjusters. This allows us to produce packaged rice without using PH adjusters and without sacrificing taste,” said an Iris Oyama spokesperson.

The recent rice shortage has caused companies to struggle to procure raw materials for packaged rice, but this is not a concern for Uke, a subsidiary of Shinmei, a long-established rice wholesaler.

Shinmei is based in Kobe, but its subsidiary, Uke, which specializes in packaged rice, is based in Toyama Prefecture. The reason for this is the quality of the water. The concept is ‘packaged rice made by a rice shop that is particular about rice and water,’ and each pack is cooked individually so that the grains stand out.

Recently, there has been a national policy to export packaged rice, and Uke is responding to this policy. For other countries with high demand for rice, the hurdle for exporting Japanese polished rice is high due to quarantine regulations, but the hurdle is low for packaged rice because it is treated as a processed food. There is a movement to build a factory for overseas exports,” said Rie Shibuya, owner of a rice store and a five-star rice master.

Whether it is the persistence of the manufacturing process, the procurement ability, or the breadth of sales channels – rivals are taking a variety of measures to address the issue. Rival companies are taking a variety of measures to fiercely pursue Sato Foods, and one company that is close on its heels is Table Mark, a Tokyo-based food company.

According to a survey conducted in 2011, Sato Foods was the top seller of packaged rice, but in terms of sales volume, Table Mark was number one. The company has a large factory in Uonuma City, Niigata Prefecture, a famous rice-producing region, and uses high-quality water, which makes the rice shiny. The finished product is hard with little water content, and the rice is easy to separate from the container. Of course, the company has its own products, but it is also responsible for manufacturing private brand products for Don Quijote and TOPVALU. The company’s products have acidifiers added, but they offer an excellent balance of volume, price, and shelf life,” said Shigemori.

The steadily rising packaged rice industry is not dominated by “Sato no Gohan” alone. In fact, the battle is only getting hotter.

From the June 27/July 4, 2025 issue of FRIDAY