It is said that is not known in detail yet I mean where the rice was born, as well as Southeast Asia with BC Mesopotamia.
Research seems to continue today.
It is transmitted to the Korean Peninsula from Kitakyushu the Yayoi period, rice was transmitted to Japan and went to spread throughout Japan from there.

Thing "and nationalized the rice paddies of all, it is collected as tax by causing made rice to the people," and Handenshuujunohou is set forth in 653 years, rice Ikima in Tsu indispensable for Japanese were.

When it was the Nara era, iron agricultural machinery spread among people, and the cultivation method using rice-transplanting and the oxen and horses which were a current style began from this time.

The incident in which the provincial governor who was governing the farmer lent Tanemomi which is seed rice, forcibly at the Nara period, and it exacted with high interest occurred.
The farmer of those days also had the person who escapes out of collection severity.

A law called Konden Einen Shizai Ho "the land reclaimed by itself may be made into its thing" was able to be done in 743.
From this, aristocrat gathered farmer and make them reclaim. And aristocrat farmed land and get power.

The Muromachi period came and iron farm implements have further been fullness.
The modernistic method of using ashes etc. as manure and taking water from these days, using a water wheel became practical.
It is also these days that the kind of rice incidentally began to increase.

It is the policy performed in order to exact a tax from a farmer uniformly in the Hideyoshi Toyotomi era.

Thanks to good condition such as “good rice of Banshu”,”water of Rokko”,”fermentation at low temperature in cold wind of Rokko”, people could make excellent rice wine.

The gap between rich farmers and poor was widening in the Edo period.
In those days, farmers had to pay half of their harvest as tax and sell their rice for purchasing living commodities.
It became more and more different for them to eat rice.
Therefore, farmers’ riots and destructions were spread in the end of the Edo period.

The price of rice is run up by booming economy caused by World war �T.
Housewives caused the main rice riot in Toyama Prefecture in 1918.
At the head of this, the rice riot was occurred frequently in Japan.
Finally it spread in Japan, and 7,050,000 or more people of 468 municipality participated.
However, the government suppressed this by 1,050,000 or more soldier.

【Reference】255000 or more arrestee.
In that, the person of a death penalty is two persons and the person of life imprisonment is 12 persons.

Japan had been sent rice to the battlefield when World War II started. So Japan became absence of rice.
Then, the government bought out rice from farmer. And they decided quantity people can bought it.
However, since people could not live only on distribution, they had got food using the black market which is illegal dealing.

In postwar years, the government continued to buy out rice so that they protect farmer.
However, the quantity which Japanese eat rice decreased gradually　in proportion as time spread.
The rice which the government brought out remained unsold gradually by this.
Furthermore, although the government bought highly, it had to sell at a low price.
It fell into the state where it is called this "Gyakuzaya", and the government went into the financial hemorrhaging.

The government feeling a pinch for deficit balance made a system called rice acreage reduction policy which is agrarian policy to carry out adjust production of rice.
The farmer carried out crop conversion rapidly by this.
Furthermore, in these days, some rice was also able to do system of selling by oneself called the free-market rice.

Japan fell into the poor harvest called maximum after the war, and domestic rice ran short in 1993.
Then, the government imported rice from Thailand in large quantities as emergency measures.
However, rice of Thailand was not so reputable for Japanese people.

In Japan, importing rice was prohibited until 1995, because the government protected rice farmers.
But in 1995, the treaty that decides Japan have to import rice was concluded in GATT.
So the government has imported minimum rice that called minimum access for a while.
We can import rice more than minimum access now, however little rice was imported because imported rice exceeding minimum access get taxes at high rate.