TOKYO -- It has been a good year for Takeshi Ishisaka, a 69-year-old rice farmer in Japan's Toyama Prefecture, northwest of the capital.
Ishisaka just finished harvesting his crop in mid-September, and even he was surprised by what his paddies produced. "The quality is better than the rice I've cultivated before," he said, explaining that 100% was classified as first class -- superior in terms of color, appearance and size.
