ABSTRACT
The issue of imported rice reinforced the symbolic value of rice for Japanese self-identity even today. Unlike Chinese long-grain rice, Californian rice is virtually identical with Japanese domestic rice, both in appearance and taste. Nonetheless, for some Japanese it is symbolically just as distinct as any other food representing the Other. Not just the government and farmers but also some consumers defended domestic rice and Japanese agriculture, equating Japanese rice and agriculture as symbols of Japanese identity. They argue that rice paddies are essential for Japanese land because they act as dams for flood control, enhance soil conservation, preserve underground water, purify air and water, and beautify the land. We see here the recurrence of the theme of rice paddies as "our" land, a spatial metaphor of the self. Californian rice, in contrast, grown in American paddies thus serves the American land and water, not Japanese. Similarly, the equation of self-sufficiency (jikyu jisoku) and the exclusive reliance on domestic rice is a frequently used discursive trope. Other metaphors present rice as a lifeblood crop, the lifeline (seimeisen), the last sacred realm (saigo no seiikt), the last citadel (that is, of Japanese identity and culture), national life, and the prototype of Japanese culture.
