Japanese scramble to buy rice as shortages bite

TOKYO — The threat of a "megaquake," a series of typhoons and a weeklong national holiday have some Japanese scrambling to buy rice — the East Asian nation's cherished staple food — with the government warning on Tuesday against panic buying.

"We could only procure half the usual amount of rice this summer, and bags of rice get quickly sold out," a clerk at a branch of the popular Fresco supermarket chain told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the capital Tokyo.