Shinmai, an official term designated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) system, is the rice harvested, processed and packaged for sale in the current year, up until December 31.
Rice from the previous calendar year is designated as komai, old rice; still older rice is called kokomai (old old rice), kokokomai (old old old rice) and so on with the number of ko (meaning old) corresponding to the rice’s age in years.
Unable to view this article?
This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.
Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.
If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see out this support page.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.