(こめ)

Rice (uncooked)

(ねだん)

price

(たかい)

expensive; high

(きょねん)

last year

(にほん)

Japan

(あがる)

to rise / to go up

(すーぱー)

supermarket

(ご)

five

(きろ)

kilogram, kilo

(ふくろ)

bag

(せんえん)

one thousand yen

(ほど)

approximately; about; to the extent

(みせ)

shop, store

(ある)

a certain (some)

(かう)

to buy

(りょう)

Quantity; amount; volume

(へらす)

to reduce; to decrease

(ぱん)

bread

(めん)

noodles

(かえる)

to change

(かてい)

household; home; family

(でる)

to come out; to occur

(りゆう)

reason; cause

(いくつか)

several, a few

(なつ)

Summer

(あつい)

hot

(しつ)

quality

(わるい)

bad

(うれる)

to sell (well)

(へる)

to decrease / to diminish

(また)

again

(がいしょく)

eating out

(べんとう)

boxed lunch; bento

(つかう)

to use

(おおい)

many

(つくる)

to make

(のうか)

farmer / farm household

(かず)

number, count

(えいきょう)

Influence; impact; effect

(せいふ)

government; administration

(そうこ)

warehouse, storehouse

(ためる)

to save, stockpile

(だす)

to serve, put out

(さげる)

to lower, to reduce

(しかし)

however, but

(こうか)

effect

(すぐ)

immediately, soon

(わかる)

to understand, be clear

(しくみ)

structure, system, mechanism

(かんがえる)

to think; to consider

(こえ)

voice

to become (い-adjective)

Expresses a change of state for い-adjectives. Drop the final い and add くなる. Indicates something has changed or will change to a new state.

is doing, has been doing (ongoing state/action)

Expresses a continuing action or resulting state. Formed with て-form + いる. Can describe an action in progress or a state resulting from a past change.

to continue doing ...

Verb stem + 続ける expresses continuing an action. The て-form あげ続ける means 'continue giving'. A common compound verb pattern.

than / more than

Indicates comparison. Used to say prices rose on average 2.8% compared to last year.

doing things like ~ and ~

Lists representative actions among several. Implies there are other actions too. Used twice in this article.

come toward (action approaching)

Indicates motion toward the speaker or a location. Here it describes rocks flying toward people.

-ness (turns an adjective into a noun)

Replacing the final い of an i-adjective with さ makes a noun. 暑い becomes 暑さ, 'the heat', which is the cause of the poor rice quality here.

passive form

Passive voice used for the victim: 殺されている (was murdered), 見つかりました (was found).

has been done / is in a state (intentional)

Attached to the te-form of transitive verbs, indicates a state resulting from intentional action. 置いてある = '(bones) are kept placed / are enshrined'.

try to ~; be about to ~

Expresses an attempt/intention. Used to say China 'was about to / trying to' tighten rare earth exports.

whether or not

Used with embedded questions to express uncertainty about whether something is true. Here it introduces what the research lab is trying to determine about the bear.

does not ~ (polite negative)

ません is the polite negative form of verbs. It negates the action in a formal/polite context.

potential form (can do)

入れられる is the potential form of 入れる — 'can put (things) in'. It describes what the furniture allows you to do.

want (someone) to do ...

Expresses a wish for someone else to do something. Formed with て-form + ほしい. The person you want to act is marked with に.

お米の値段が高くなっている

The price of rice keeps going up

去年から、日本ではお米の値段が上がり続けています。

Since last year, the price of rice in Japan has kept rising.

スーパーでは、五キロの袋が去年より千円ほど高くなった店もあります。

At some supermarkets, a five-kilogram bag now costs about 1,000 yen more than last year.

買う量を減らしたり、パンや麺に変えたりする家庭も出てきました。

Households that buy less rice, or switch to bread and noodles, have started to appear.

値段が上がった理由はいくつかあります。

There are several reasons why the price went up.

夏の暑さで米の質が悪くなり、売れる量が減りました。

The summer heat worsened the quality of the rice, and the amount that could be sold fell.

また、外食や弁当で使われる米も多くなりました。

In addition, more rice is now being used for eating out and for boxed lunches.

作る農家の数が減っていることも影響しています。

The falling number of farming households that grow rice is also having an effect.

政府は、倉庫にためてある米を出して、値段を下げようとしています。

The government is releasing rice stockpiled in warehouses and trying to bring the price down.

しかし、効果がすぐに出るかどうかは分かりません。

However, it is not clear whether the effect will show up right away.

農家からは、米を作り続けられる仕組みを考えてほしいという声が出ています。

From farmers there are calls for a system to be devised that would let them keep growing rice.