Japan to release emergency rice reserves to fight runaway inflation

The Japanese government said Friday it will release a fifth of its emergency rice stockpile after hot weather, poor harvests and panic buying over a "megaquake" warning nearly doubled prices over a year. Japan has previously tapped into its reserves to cope with disasters, but this marked the first time since the stockpile was built in 1995 that it was doing so because of supply chain problems.

Some supermarket shelves were emptied in August of rice following a week-long holiday, a series of typhoons and warnings of a looming major earthquake that has so far failed to materialise. Agriculture Minister told reporters on Friday the government will release 210,000 tonnes of rice from its stock of one million tonnes.