It is often said that the Inuit have dozens of words to describe the types of snow, and in Japan it is the same for rice. A collaborative effort is now underway to refine and define the terminology used to describe the nation’s staple food.
A national research center and a private company have begun working together to come up with clever definitions to be used in a rice terminological dictionary in an effort to more accurately and descriptively catalog the myriad words that define the taste, aroma and texture of rice in Japanese language.
Rice producers and distributors hope that by setting standards for common expressions that are often somewhat ambiguous, they can more accurately convey the “individuality” of products to consumers, such as “rice that has a sweet aroma, is fluffy, but firm with a strong umami flavor.”
An undated photo shows “sensory evaluations” of rice conducted by the National Agricultural Research Institute in the past in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. (Photo courtesy of NARO) (Kyodo)
In January, at the National Agricultural Food and Research Organization in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, food researcher Fumio Hayakawa and others were engaged in heated discussions in front of freshly cooked rice.
They tried to define terminology that best described differences in the hardness or graininess of rice, for example. Hayakawa’s team partnered with Itochu Food Sales and Marketing Co., a subsidiary of the major trading house Itochu Corp., to create the dictionary.
NARO sells an agricultural technical encyclopedia with terms covering crops and cultivation as well as management, distribution and marketing among other jargon. His texture terminology system in Japanese describes a variety of foods, including boiled white rice, shrimp, udon noodles, bread, and more.
In production, distribution and sales, experts conduct “sensory evaluations” where they assess quality based on aroma, taste and texture. The results are used to influence the development and procurement of new rice varieties, as well as product promotion.
However, there are concerns that there is a lack of uniformity in the recognition of expressions or that the same words are used too much, leading to less accurate estimates of rice.
Toshiya Amano, general manager of the rice division of Itochu Food Sales and Marketing, which sells milled rice to convenience stores and other retailers nationwide, gave an example of the nuances of meaning in rice descriptions that are confusing to some consumers.
“For example, some people consider ‘fresh rice’ to be ‘sticky rice,'” Amano said.
However, because it was “unrealistic” to quantify all textures and flavors, the company sought a solution by starting research with NARO in 2021.
Photo taken on Jan. 15, 2024 shows Fumio Hayakawa, a researcher at the National Agricultural Research Organization’s Food Division, smelling rice in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. (Kyodo)
First, a dozen researchers experienced in evaluation tasted 32 rice products and shared their impressions of their quality.
Taste tests include tasting more than 110 types of rice, such as freshly cooked, rice that has been cooked but left for a while, store-bought rice balls, and rice from long-term storage packages.
More than 7,000 terms were collected by searching for new terms in more than 100 articles, including rice-related studies and rice cooker catalogs. Hayakawa said some of the descriptions are unique, such as “taste like natto” (fermented soybeans) or “boiled egg aroma.”
“If we put them into a dictionary, we can pick up characteristics that have been overlooked so far because they can’t be contextualized,” Hayakawa said, adding that they also looked at what processes make such different tastes.
They narrowed the words in the four categories of appearance, taste, aroma and texture to about 100 and are now in the process of defining them. The meaning of even standard terms like “gloss” and “sweet scent” are difficult to convey, Hayakawa said.
Synonyms and antonyms are introduced and additions are added to provide context in the ratings.
The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2025 and will later be published on the NARO website.
Hayakawa is enthusiastic about what the dictionary will offer to people who love rice in its various forms. “I want to make this a tool to convey the appeal of rice not only to the evaluators, but also to consumers,” she said.
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