Japan is to flood the market with almost a quarter of a million tonnes of stockpiled rice in an unprecedented attempt to arrest soaring prices caused by record summer heat, panic buying and distribution problems.

The government will release up to 210,000 tonnes of rice, the agriculture minister, Taku Eto, said on Friday, as consumers battled a surge in prices of more than 50% in recent months.

Speaking shortly before the decision, Eto noted that the government did not normally intervene in the market, but conceded that recent price rises “have had a significant impact on people’s lives. The price hike has been too sharp, which is why we have made this decision.”

The latest average retail price of a 5kg (11lb) bag of the Japanese staple was ¥3,688 ($24), according to a government survey, up from ¥2,023 last year.

Japan’s government has previously dipped into its rice reserves in the aftermath of natural disasters or crop failures, but this is the first time it has intervened over distribution issues, including when supply chain disruption contributes to rising prices.

Japan’s rice stockpiles had already depleted after record-breaking temperatures affected the 2023 crop. Stockpiles shrank again last year, partly due to a rise in consumption caused by record numbers of tourists. Supplies were also hit by panic buying in the wake of typhoon and earthquake warnings, forcing some retailers to restrict sales.

The price of rice continued to leap after an initial rise last summer, as a shortage triggered by extreme temperatures the previous year sent demand spiralling.

The government had hoped prices would stabilise when newly harvested rice went on sale last autumn, but they continued to go up.

Although the 2024 harvest was 180,000 tonnes more than that of 2023, distributors secured less of the grain than a year earlier, amid speculation that farmers and wholesalers were hoarding in anticipation of further price rises, the Kyodo news agency said.

The stockpiled rice will be sold to agricultural cooperatives and wholesalers in the middle of next month and should be on sale by early April, media reports said. The government has to buy back an equivalent quantity of rice from distributors within a year to prevent prices from collapsing.

While the location of rice storage facilities are not disclosed for security reasons, a warehouse in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo opened its doors to the media ahead of Friday’s announcement.

That warehouse holds about 20,000 tonnes of rice – enough to fill 300m bowls. Japan can draw on almost 1m tonnes of reserve rice held at about 300 facilities across the country, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

The agriculture ministry buys around 200,000 tonnes of rice a year for its emergency reserves and stores it for five years before selling it, mostly as animal feed, the newspaper added.

Japan began stockpiling rice in 1995 after a major rice crop failure two years earlier sparked panic buying.

Agence France-Presse contributed reporting