Japanese bento question?

When japanese people make a traditional bento, what kind of rice do they use (jasmine, regular rice, etc.) and do they add anything special to it to add a certain flavor?|||Japonica rice, which is grown in Japan and sticky. You rarely find other kinds of rice in Japan due to the duty imposed on them and little demand of them; Japanese people eat rice other than Japonica kind little to nothing.


I give you an example on 'little demand': In 1993, Japan got a very cold year and the amount of rice harvested was small enough for Japan to consider import rice from overseas. The government imported rice from Thailand; however, Japanese people either disposed it or used it just as fried rice because it was a different kind of rice and didn't match their taste at all. Many people tried to buy rice directly from Japanese farmers for very high prices. It was a disastrous incident for the Japanese, people with sophisticated taste, and led to the partial opening of Japanese rice market to foreign farmers two years later causing the rise of California rice. I remember the incident very well and my uncle's family had a puddy field so fortunately we could eat top quality Japanese rice with no effort.








%26gt;do they add anything special to it to add a certain flavor?


Not normarly. Though sometime we make a flavoured rice dish called 'takikomigohan'.