Reconstructing the Value of Japan’s Rice Industry for Its Sustainability:

Rice in Japan has functioned not merely as a staple food, but as the foundational axis of the nation's cultural, social, and economic systems.While global demand for rice is expanding-driven by health consciousness, the international spread of Japanese cuisine, and growing Asian diaspora populations-per capita rice consumption in Japan has fallen to less than half its peak level amid population decline and dietary diversification, and the rapid aging of agricultural producers threatens the sustainability of the rice industry.This study employs a narrative review methodology to examine the cultural and historical transitions of the Japanese rice industry through three analytical lenses-cultural value, social value, and economic value-with the aim of exploring prospects for sustainable value creation.The findings reveal that the generative foundation of both the social and economic value of rice has consistently resided in its cultural value: the faith cultivated through rice cultivation gave rise to communal norms, which constructed social order, upon which economic systems were established.Accordingly, the decline of the rice industry must be understood not merely as an agricultural or economic problem, but as a more fundamental crisis involving the disappearance of Japan's cultural identity network.In an era of advancing digitalization, the embodied and spiritual dimensions of rice culture may paradoxically acquire greater significance, and incorporating Japan's spiritual culture as added value in expanding international markets may offer one viable pathway toward a sustainable rice industry.