George Glass, U.S. Ambassador to Japan: And we know that Japanese consumers are going to appreciate a product that meets all the standards of excellence that they expect when they enter an AEON store.

Japanese supermarket giant AEON announced on May 13 that it will start selling 100% Calrose rice from California, USA beginning in June.

It will be mainly sold in urban centers and will be priced at 2,894 yen with tax, or about $19.75 USD, for 4-kilogram bags.

The move to sell American rice is in response to consumers' comments that rice is hard to obtain and that it is too expensive to buy as casually as before.

Competitor Seiyu also began selling rice from Taiwan at some shops in November 2024, and there is a growing trend to sell imported rice to deal with high price of domestic rice.