The White House said Wednesday that Japan has agreed to purchase 100 Boeing aircraft and billions' worth of agricultural and other products, and increase imports of U.S. rice by 75 percent as part of a trade deal struck this week.

Japan will invest $550 billion in the U.S. and allow the U.S. to tax Japanese goods sold in America at 15 percent.

The price of rice in Japan has doubled in the last year. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with University of Pittsburgh scholar Kay Shimizu about what's behind the shortage in the homeland of sushi.

The Trump administration has threatened Japan with 25 percent tariffs. River Akira Davis, our Tokyo correspondent, explains how automobiles and rice have become the two major sticking points in the negotiations.

Japan’s ruling party is betting on lower rice prices winning urban votes at the risk of alienating their traditional farm base.

Japan's embattled prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, fresh off a crushing defeat in upper house elections over the weekend, will not be in a position of strength to negotiate a favorable trade deal with the U.S., analysts said.

HAENAM, South Korea / TOKYO: Japan is grappling with rice shortages and price hikes, forcing it to ramp up imports. Just across the sea, South Korea is facing the opposite problem — an overwhelming surplus that has driven prices so low, some regions are practically giving rice away.

New research into ancient Japanese rice farming suggests that significant technological development does not always mean the abandonment of cultural practices, particularly culinary traditions.