The Japanese Public

Keeps a Wary Eye

On Grains of Truth

***

Will foreign rice be as Good

As the domestic Varieties?

Worse, Will It Be Better?

By Yumiko Ono

________________________

TOTTORI, Japan

Five mounds of steaming white rice loom in front of Yoshimatro Yamane. Four are foreign, and one is Japanese. Can he tell which is which? The 67 year old rice farmer brims with confidence. All his life in this provincial southern town he has cultivated Japanese rice and savored its subtle flavor. He knows his rice by heart.

Mr. Yamane tastes, masticates, selects a variety that has "just the right stickiness" and proclaims it Japanese. He is suprised to learn that its a variety called Calrose, from California. He tastes a different sample, frowns, and describes it as soggy and smelly. That turns out to be Japanese Koshihikari, the very rice Mr. Yamane grows himself. Mortified, Mr. Yamane sneaks from the room.

portion ommited for size

Capital Grains

Chris Isbell, a rice farmer who grows Koshihikari-brand rice in England, Arkansas, hopes the Japanese government will pick his rice as one of the sanctioned imports. He has submitted his rice here in Tottori as one of the five to be tested. After nervously watching the crowd sniff and swallow, he attempts to identify his own rice, using his personal method: detecting " the amount of lingering sweetness after you've swallowed the rice." After much hesitation, he guesses correctly.

When the results are announced, the Japanese rice comes in first place, followed closely by the two Chinese rices. Mr. Isbell's rice comes in fourth place, and Calrose from California is the least popular, even though Mr. Yamane, the farmer, liked it.

The results don't discourage Mr. Isbell. Immediately after the symposium, several people gather around the Arkansas farmer, telling him his rice wasn't so bad. In fact, some say they nearly mistook it for Japanese rice.

"We friends," says Toshio Kishi, a 55 year old rice wholesaler, who shakes Mr. Isbell's hand and asks for his address." I'd like to buy your rice."