Japan Data
Society
Lifestyle
Food and Drink
Jun 13, 2025
The resurgence of a major rice pest is a headache for growers in Japan.
The “rice stink bug” (inekamemushi), a brown insect about 12 to 13 millimeters long, is an avid consumer of rice. The insect sucks the nutrients out of rice plants, hindering development and blackening the grains, which can make it impossible to ship harvested rice to retailers.
Grains of rice damaged by rice stink bugs. (Courtesy the Ibaraki Prefectural Agricultural Research Center)
A survey of rice stink bugs was conducted by the Saitama Prefectural Pest and Disease Control Center from November 2024 to March 2025. The results confirmed overwintering of stink bugs at 100 of 172 locations in the prefecture, or 58.1%. It also found 17.1 bugs per square meter, which is 43 times higher than the 0.4 bugs per square meter noted in the survey for the previous year. An official at the center said, “Even based on our impressions while conducting the survey, it seemed clear that the number of bugs had increased.”
Interviews with prefectural governments conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries confirmed the existence of rice stink bugs in 37 prefectures in 2024. The other 10 prefectures where the bugs were not found are mainly located in northern Japan, including Hokkaidō, Aomori, and Iwate Prefectures.
According to MAFF, the rice stink bug, which was considered one of the three major pests threatening rice after World War II, decreased in number sharply from around the 1960s as a result of effective pesticides and the earlier planting of rice. At one point, it was even thought that the species may have gone extinct. However, the combination of climate change and the cultivation of rice varieties with different growing periods has led to an increase in rice stink bugs in recent years.
(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: A rice stink bug feasting on a rice plant. Courtesy the Saitama Prefectural Pest and Disease Control Center.)
rice
agriculture
AloJapan.com