Japan’s tourism industry has encountered an amusing problem this time, and it has nothing to do with overcrowded trains, overcrowded attractions, or getting lost in the capital city of Tokyo. Instead, it is the problem of consuming rice.
Foreigners visiting Japan are said to consume a larger quantity of rice than an average Japanese citizen According to the report from MAFF dated July 27, 2026, overseas tourists consume 570 grams of rice during their stay in Japan.
This amount equals four bowls per day.
Additionally, considering the Japanese cuisine, it’s not so surprising that such number has been recorded.
A visit to Japan can transform into a rice feast without you even knowing it. There is sushi for lunch, later onigiri from convenience shop, and rice bowl for dinner and even a snack containing rice in between. As a result, rice consumption increases.
Tourism in Japan is generating rice dilemma.
It was revealed that visitors consumed approximately 570 grams each day, which meant they consumed more rice compared to the volume studied by Japanese authorities regarding rice consumption by foreigners. While the average citizen consumes about 330 – 340 grams of rice, it means tourists consume almost 70 percent more.
But what explains such high rice consumption?
It is not merely the case that everyone has suddenly developed a love for sushi.
MAFF explained that several rice-based dishes are very popular, particularly onigiri, which are inexpensive, lightweight to transport, and available anywhere. It is probably the best snack for tourists who travel around Japan.
Once you begin buying onigiri from convenience stores, you will start to enjoy rice many times in a day.
Some people really adore rice.
The statistics become even more intriguing if analysed by country.
As per the MAFF survey, the Vietnamese tourists were recorded as the leading tourists in terms of rice consumption, which absorbed roughly 718 grams of rice in a day while Indonesians ranked a slightly behind with rice consumption at 714 grams.
Visitors from the Philippines ate about 695 grams of rice. Tourists from Thailand had an average intake of roughly 629 grams daily.
American tourists consumed around 565 grams, while visitors from China consumed about 546 grams daily.
People visiting from Hong Kong were at the bottom end of the scale, but even this represented daily rice intake of about 468 grams per day, which was still significantly higher than the average consumption in Japan.
For travelers from those countries where rice has already become an essential ingredient in their everyday meals, eating a lot of rice in Japan appears completely normal.
Not Only Sushi
Sushi is most probably the first thing that comes to mind when talking about “Japanese rice.”
Nevertheless, sushi is only one part of the entire idea.
Japan has a myriad of rice meals. There are rice bowls, curry rice, grilled rice, bento, rice balls, and the list goes on.
Next in line are the convenience stores.
Japanese convenience stores are often a tourist attraction in their own right. You can step into a 7-Eleven, Lawson, or FamilyMart to see countless varieties of rice-based foods and snacks waiting for you.
For example, you may grab an onigiri for breakfast while sightseeing. You may also get one more as an afternoon snack. Dinner may require a bowl consisting of cooked rice with fish meat or curry.
This demonstrates how four servings of rice can become a normal thing to consume without any wasting.
Interestingly, Japanese individuals consume less rice than their foreign counterparts.
It is a fact that locals do not eat as much rice as foreign travelers do. The average rice consumption of a Japanese citizen equals about 330 to 340 grams.
One of many reasons for that is the fact that Japanese people have a variety of other carbohydrate sources.
Japanese food can be perceived differently by visitors.
While spending one or two weeks in Japan, you would certainly want to taste various traditional meals. Rice would definitely become part of the experience, although you wouldn’t focus on this food in the terms of constant need for carbs, since you would be thinking that you are in Japan and this gives you the opportunity to taste it.
This fact may explain why visitors consume more rice than local people during the trips to Japan.
Japan Had A Serious Rice Problem
The time when the data was gathered is important as well.
In 2024 Japan faced a huge rice shortage. Prices became extremely high, supermarkets could hardly keep their shelves stocked and the problem with rice appeared in the entire country which was named “Reiwa Rice Riots”.
The main factor of this situation was very bad harvests of rice due to high temperature conditions. At the same time the country faced the largest amount of foreign visitors.
This raised an obvious question regarding how much travel industry was increasing the demand for rice in Japan.
Before the shortage the government didn’t pay much attention for the rice consumption habits of
The new figures are considerably larger than past predictions.
Foreign tourists may require a greater quantity of rice than anticipated.
Between July 2025 and June 2026, the MAFF estimates that foreign tourists consumed about 82,000 tons of rice that has been milled.
This amounts to around 91,000 tons of rice that is still brown.
This figure is significantly above a past estimate of 61,000 tons published in March 2026.
That is quite an adjustment.
This indicates that tourism is more linked to the rice supply in Japan than expected. Foreign tourists aren’t directly responsible for every rice shortage or price rise, but their consumption is one factor the government will take into account in general supply and demand.
And as long as Japan is successful in drawing huge numbers of international tourists, such demand will become even more crucial.
The Effect of Onigiri
It is almost humoristic.
You can picture tourists going to a restaurant and enjoying large plates of rice every day. Yet a big chunk of the additional rice consumption can be attributed to, in this case, onigiri.
Japanese rice balls are very popular in Japan.
They are not expensive, easy to carry, and available in various kinds. You can buy them at any convenience store prior to going to the beach or having a sightseeing tour or eating the onigiri when you realize that it is lunchtime, and you have not had your lunch yet.
For tourists who are always on the go between traveling from temples to shopping areas to train stations or attractions, onigiri is the perfect solution.
Indeed, one rice ball means nothing.
However, when millions of tourists eat rice balls for the whole year, the situation gets far more interesting.
Traveling to Japan Means Eating Tons of Rice
The new results reveal how tourism can change things tourists do not normally notice.
If numerous tourists spend a big number of days or weeks in Japan and consume more rice a day than local people, then we can conclude that the total help to the market is huge.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that travelers will stop consuming rice, as it is one of the best elements of Japanese culinary culture, and tasting local food is one of the reasons why people travel to other countries.
On the contrary, the new statistics will help Japan get a more complete picture of the tourist’s behavior.
A Broader View of Tourism in Japan
Now the authorities can clearly understand how tourists behave while they are in Japan.
This is not only about how many people go to Japan, but also about how visitors behave in the country.
Where do they stay? What do they eat? How long do they stay in Japan? What kind of transport do they use? What do they buy?
All these factors influence demand.
In this case, 350 grams of rice that is eaten in a day differs greatly from the expected 570 grams of rice eaten per tourist per day when the figures are multiplied by millions of travelers.
Thus
Are tourists consuming too much rice? That is not exactly the case. There is no evidence from the information that international visitors are guilty of something bad because of eating more rice than expected. In fact, the thing is simply that their rice consumption was underestimated.
In reality, Japan is making it very easy for people to eat rice all the time. You may have rice in the morning, for breakfast, then grab some onigiri at a store, eat sushi for lunch, eat something on the way, and finish the day with a rice bowl. If you visit Japan for the first time, you may not even notice how much rice you’ve eaten until someone tells you.
The good news is that now the Japanese government knows more information about tourists eating rice. As a result of that, the foreigners do not only bring money to Japan’s hotels, restaurants, and objects of attraction. They also consume a lot of rice while being there.
