The average price of rice sold at some 1,000 supermarkets across Japan fell for the first time in three weeks in the week through May 25, the agriculture ministry said Monday.
The average price stood at ¥4,260 ($29.80) per 5 kilograms, down by ¥25 from the previous week, apparently because the stockpiled rice released by the government became more widely available at stores.
The pace of distribution remains slow, however.
The latest average is still double that of a year earlier.
The government sold a total of 310,000 metric tons of stockpiled rice via auctions held between March and April.
Stockpiled rice is typically blended with other rice for sale at stores. The proportion of blended rice accounted for 36% of all rice sold in the week of May 25, up 2 percentage points from the previous week, the ministry said.
Hopes are growing that a bigger proportion of blended rice would help tame the soaring prices.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi has switched to selling stockpiled rice through discretionary contracts instead of through competitive bidding.
Some stockpiled rice sold under the new system has already hit stores and, in many cases, sold out quickly. Prices for this batch of rice stood at around ¥2,000 per 5 kg, a numerical target set by Koizumi.
Whether overall rice prices will fall further depends on whether stockpiled rice released under the no-bid contracts will be widely available at stores.
According to the ministry, the lowest retail rice price at supermarkets and drugstores by prefecture as of Thursday was Hokkaido's ¥2,980 per 5 kg, excluding tax. Wakayama had the highest price of ¥4,480.
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