Suprise: Modern Korean Rice comes from Japan.

Posted by: MrC

I read a research paper that supported the idea that the Yayoi came by way of China and not Korea as commonly believed.  The research pointed to how both Chinese and Japanese rice had genetic markers that the Korean rice did not.   I was a bit confused since Japanese and Koreans eat sticky rice while the Chinese eat flaky rice.  So how could Japanese rice be closer to Chinese rice?

Well, I found out two things.   First, Northern Chinese eat sticky rice while southern Chinese eat flaky rice.   It's just that most Chinese restaurants are southern so everyone associates Chinese cooking with flaky rice.   Second,  the reason Koreans eat sticky rice is the Japanese during the annexation implemented a program to grow Japanese rice for export in Korea which supplemented the native Korean rice species.   After the war,   instead of reverting back to their native species, they stayed with the Japanese types because they were well developed in terms of yield and disease resistance.    Korean government made efforts to develop their own version of Japonica rice but it never gained popularity because the Korean people simply preferred the taste of Japanese rice.    The original Korean rice was types of Indica like the rice eaten in Southern China.

https://food52.com/blog/23925-history-of-white-rice-in-korea

 

I think that Japan is a totally unique nation! It was able to repel the entire Mongol Empire by itself, like us Filipinos, Vietnamese and Indonesians too, yet Japan when backed into a corner was able to repel an empire that destroyed even more populous nations like China.

Now, Japan has managed to produce the wealthiest and most populous city in the world, Tokyo! Korean rice should have evolved from the more special breed of Japanese rice.

Yeah.   As  I research stuff I find all kinds of info of Japanese contributions to other nations and the world but Japanese are very silent.    No one knows about this stuff like the first felt tip pen was invented by  a Japanese guy or the first indestructible luggage case was manufactured by a Japanese company that was rebranded as Samsonite.  Samsonite became huge because of that revolutionary case yet the Japanese inventor gets no credit.  Hell we are even silent when people spread lies like Wagyu beef is derived from stolen Hanwoo beef from Korea.  It's such an easy lie to debunk but no Japanese ever do speak out  so this Hanwoo = Wagyu lie is turning into internet factoid.  We Japanese need to talk out more and set the record straight on everything.