‘Difficult door’ is not easy to enter
In fiscal year 2024 (ending March 2025), the amount of rice applied for import by private companies in Japan reached a record high of 991 tons as of the end of January 2025. To import, these companies must pay taxes to the Japanese government. The private import tax that rice importers must pay is 341 yen/kg.
Data on private rice imports has only been kept since fiscal year 2019, with 426 tons imported in fiscal year 2020. Since then, the amount of rice imported by private companies has been in the range of 200-400 tons per year. But in fiscal year 2024, this amount reached 468 tons and then doubled to 991 tons by the end of January 2025.
Currently, rice prices in Japan have skyrocketed, with a 5kg bag costing more than 4,000 yen, nearly three times higher than last year. The price of Japonica rice produced in Vietnam and imported into Japan, including tax, is currently at 3,240 yen for a 5kg bag. At this price, imported Vietnamese rice is still about 800 yen/5kg cheaper than the price of the same type of rice in this market.
The question now is, Vietnam is one of the world's leading rice exporting countries, and Vietnamese rice is also entering its biggest harvest of the year - the Winter-Spring crop. Vietnam's export rice prices are also at a low level. Among the varieties of exported rice, Vietnamese Japonica rice looks similar to Japanese products and the taste is almost identical. In the context of the Japanese rice market being in a price crisis, is this an opportunity for Vietnamese rice?
Talking to reporters of Cong Thuong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh - Director of Phuoc Thanh IV Production and Trading Company Limited (Vinh Long) - said that the Japanese market is short of rice, this is not the first time it has happened. This also happened 3-4 years ago, and they are still short of rice. The reason is that Japan has a bad harvest, rice prices are constantly increasing.
For Vietnamese enterprises, most of the rice exports to the Japanese market are done through companies in Japan. These are enterprises that have worked here and are familiar with the culture of this market. For enterprises that have never exported to the Japanese market, they will be very hesitant.
The reason is that this is a very demanding market, with very strict requirements on residue standards. Accordingly, Vietnamese rice imports into Japan must pass the regulations on pesticide residues with 624 inspection criteria such as: Soil, rice varieties, pests, pesticide residues, pesticides, rice quality, etc., and pass three inspections. In addition, the procedures for importing rice into Japan are quite complicated. Normally, it takes up to a year and a half to get a license.
Another challenge is that Japanese consumers are familiar with Japanese rice varieties, because they are sticky, delicious, and safe. They also value domestic products. Thus, the types of rice exported to this market are also very 'choosy', businesses must have raw material areas for them to be able to export. For example, Phuoc Thanh IV's business does not have raw material areas, so it is very difficult to export to this market.
"The market standards are too strict, and the import policy is not continuous, so businesses are hesitant to export to this market. Only when the price of Japanese rice increases will they allow imports. In other words, this market opens a quota for imported rice, if the market is in short supply, they will import goods, when their inventory is a little surplus, they will stop importing", Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh informed.
Another issue that Mr. Thanh mentioned is that for export businesses, if we do not have trusted partners, exporting rice to this market will be very risky. Because the type of rice exported to the Japanese market is quite picky, if businesses cannot sell to the Japanese market, they cannot sell domestically or to other countries.
"Japonica rice is sticky, most Southeast Asians do not like it, while only the Southeast Asian market uses a lot of rice. Some other countries such as those in the West Asia region do not eat this rice, they use Jasmine or ST rice, or fragrant sticky rice varieties", Mr. Thanh said.
Delicious is not enough
In the report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Vietnam's key rice export markets include the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and China. The EU and the United States are two markets that import high-quality rice such as specialty fragrant rice ST24, ST25 with a small market share of about 0.5-0.6%/year. Thus, Vietnam's main rice export markets do not include Japan.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, white rice accounts for about 71%, mainly exported to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Africa. Fragrant rice such as Jasmine, Dai Thom, ST24, ST25 accounts for 19%, mainly exported to the EU, the United States, China, and Japan. Japonica rice and other specialty rice account for 4%, mainly consumed in Japan, South Korea, and other high-end markets.
Talking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, agricultural expert Hoang Trong Thuy said that although the Japanese market is lacking rice, prices are at a very high level. However, whether Vietnamese rice can be exported to this market or not is another matter. Japan only imports Japanese rice varieties grown in Vietnam. They trace the origin down to the native varieties, grown according to organic standards, not just buying whatever is delicious.
According to Mr. Hoang Trong Thuy, Japan has two types of rice imports. The first is rice imported by the government, because Japan is obliged to buy a certain amount from abroad according to the regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The second type is imported by private companies such as trading companies and other companies.
Japanese agriculture still maintains small-scale production households, low output and is heavily dependent on subsidies from the Government. Japan joined the CPTPP negotiations in the context that the country's agriculture is not really prepared enough to maintain and survive the pressure from intra-bloc competition.
Meanwhile, according to businesses in the industry, Japan is not currently a major rice export market for Vietnam. In the Japanese market, Vietnamese rice is not competitive enough compared to rice from the United States, Thailand, China or Australia.
From 2012 to present, Vietnamese rice has been exported to the Japanese market mainly through non-commercial channels with insignificant quantities and mainly used for food processing such as cakes, miso sauce, etc.
It is forecasted that Vietnam's rice export to Japan in the coming time will still be difficult due to the decreasing demand for rice consumption of Japanese people, while Vietnamese rice still has to face fierce competition from rice from the United States, Thailand, and China - countries with a tradition and strength in exporting rice to Japan.

Source: congthuong.vn