Rakuten raises its hand to help alleviate Japan’s rice shortage

Japan is facing a shortage of its most essential food: rice. As prices climb to double their usual level and supermarket rice shelves lie bare, Rakuten has stepped into an unexpected role – emergency rice distributor.

Now in its second year, the shortage has prompted the Japanese government to begin releasing its emergency stockpiles, enlisting the help of companies like Rakuten to deliver this rice quickly, safely and at scale.

Why is there a rice shortage?

Rice has long been the staple of Japan, and the vast majority of what appears atop family dinner tables is domestically grown. Steady production and protections for local growers have been long-standing national priorities.

So when prices spiked and supermarket shelves ran bare in the summer of 2024, many were left wondering: How did this core crop suddenly become scarce?

While no single factor fully explains the shortage, many point to a number of key issues that may have converged to create the crisis. To begin with, the previous year’s rice harvest is thought to have suffered under record-breaking heat. This was followed by a surge in inbound tourism, with nearly 37 million tourists visiting Japan in 2024.

To add to this, in late summer – a seasonal low point for rice inventories – many consumers began stockpiling rice in the face of typhoon and earthquake warnings. This demand may have been driven even further by media coverage of the emerging shortage.

With both Japan’s population and its per-capita rice consumption dwindling, some experts point out that efforts in recent decades have primarily focused on avoiding oversupply. While international trade agreements facilitate the import of some rice each year, imported grain is typically only used to make processed foods or in the service industry, rather than on household dinner tables.

The resulting rice crunch caught many in the system off-guard. The Japanese government, which maintains upwards of one million tons of emergency rice in reserve, initially hesitated to act, looking to avoid destabilizing prices for farmers during the new harvest.

Mobilizing emergency reserves

Entering spring 2025, prices continued to surge and availability again began to drop. Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced that reserves would soon be mobilized, meeting with business leaders including Rakuten Group Chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani.

In late May, Rakuten raised its hand to assist with the mobilization, becoming one of the official distributors of the reserve rice.

But despite operating Japan’s largest e-commerce platform, Rakuten lacked direct experience in rice distribution. Logistical questions soon emerged: Where would the rice be stored? Where would it be milled? How should it be packaged? Who would handle delivery?

A dedicated team was formed to tackle each of these challenges, pulling together answers in real time and traveling to local milling facilities and warehouses around Japan to confirm capacity.

The team leveraged Rakuten’s extensive network of small businesses, including clients of platforms Rakuten 24, Rakuten Mart and Rakuten Gourmet-Kan. From Rakuten Ichiba’s roster of over 50,000 merchants, they reached out to those with experience handling rice products, from sake breweries to snack makers.

With the help of AI, the team drew up a nationwide list of some 2,000 potential business partners and hit the phones. Hearing of Rakuten’s commitment to the project, some partners didn’t wait for the call, reaching out directly to offer help with packaging or logistics.

Within three days, the team had a grip on capacity, and were coordinating closely with milling facilities. The team still had to design and print packaging, deliver it to the mills and launch the product pages — all before the first bag could ship.

Three days to market

The first batch of reserve rice went on sale on Rakuten Ichiba-based daily necessities outlet Rakuten 24 on May 29 – just three days after the project kicked off. Prices were set at 1,980 yen for five kilograms, below the government’s target price of 2,000 yen. The initial batch quickly sold out.

A similar story played out with the launch on Rakuten Gourmet-Kan, where there was a surge in pre-order traffic. The team quickly moved to optimize services and the pre-order inventory soon sold through.

As freshly milled rice began arriving at Rakuten’s automated distribution warehouses, the team made visits to government-designated storage facilities to confirm the quality of the product and temperature control systems.

Rakuten’s first foray into rice distribution was full of new challenges, requiring speed, a high level of coordination and creative solutions under pressure. But driven by a mission to deliver affordable rice to the people who need it, Rakuten’s rice warriors are proving what can be done when tech, logistics and a nationwide network of partners are mobilized for a common goal.