Could Japan's rice crisis be easing? Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Nick Qureshi in for Leanna Burn. First, some good news for consumers of rice in Japan. The price of a 5-kilogram bag has dipped to its lowest level in two months. The country's National Supermarket Association says the shortage seems to be easing.

The BBC's business correspondent Katie Silver says that for a country that eats as much rice as Japan,

the high price has been tough for consumers.

It was so contentious saw one minister having to step down after he mentioned

getting free rice from constituents. So to give you an idea, prices of the five-kilo bag,

they've dipped below 4,000 yen to 3,900 yen, or that's about 27 US dollars. It's the first time

we've seen it below the 4,000 yen mark since early March.

Price is still elevated, in fact, about double what they were two years ago.

Now, it's come about in part because of a target set by the Prime Minister Shigeru Oshiba.

He is reported to have said that he wants to see prices around the 3,000 yen mark,

and that 4,000, quote, unquote, can't be

right. He also said that he was going to take personal responsibility for the matter.

And to give you an idea, we saw them rising sharply in the back half of last year.

There was poor harvests in 2023. There was outsized demand from tourists. The yen was very

low, which made Japan a very popular destination,

normally a very expensive place to visit. And as a result of that, a lot of people in this region

going on holidays in Japan buying up more of the rice. And we saw the price rise acceleration

even further for the first half of this year. And it also, because of that low yen, it made

it more expensive to buy rice from abroad.

Now, we have seen the prices significantly increase more than doubling, for example, in May,

the largest increase in over half a century.

Katie Silver there.

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