Rice queen dethroned after going against the grain once too often

[Anchorman]

A tacky old biddy with a disdain for the common folk is now facing jail time, after a disgruntled rice seller proved that you don't want to mess around with the Japanese when it comes to rice, according to Shukan Gendai (6/16).

Kansai area rice wholesalers have for years been packaging cheap rice, including stuff usually used for livestock, as famous rice strains, making rice-eaters pay premium prices for shoddy quality.

Seven people have already been arrested in the rice scam, and most have come up with exactly the same excuse: "Masami Ishiza told us to do it."

Ishiza is the 47-year-old who heads an Osaka-based company called Nihon Rice and was one of the seven arrested May 30.

The arrests came about because Kunihiko Takazawa, a rice retailer in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, complained to authorities.

"Since about April last year, I kept get complaints from customers that the rice they were buying tasted different every time. We did a DNA test on the rice and found that the strains were completely different from what their packaging said they were," Takazawa tells Shukan Gendai. "There was one packet saying it was Shiga Prefecture-made yumeoumi (a famous rice strain) and it didn't contain a single grain of yumeoumi. I could have pretended nothing was happening, but decided to report the case to the prefectural government and prefectural police."

Ishiza took over Nihon Rice in August 2003 following the death of her husband, who had previously run the rice wholesaler.

"She was always dressed in a Chanel pants suit and drove around in an S-class Mercedes Benz. She's short and fat and she really looked like she was having trouble in her Chanel," a former Nihon Rice employee tells Shukan Gendai. "You couldn't even say out of politeness that she looked good in it. She is the epitome of a crass, nouveau riche old biddy."

Though Ishiza only took over running Nihon Rice following the death of her husband, the company was founded by her father and her late spouse was adopted. Ishiza grew up wanting for nothing. But she was said to have a vindictive streak and many Nihon Rice workers began fearing for their futures when Ishiza took over the company helm.

"She used to cut the wages of employees she didn't like, fired others and basically did whatever she wanted," a former executive at Nihon Rice tells Shukan Gendai. "She had this impression that she was something special and looked down on others by saying, 'You're nothing but poor trash.' I've even heard her reply to one of the top worker's complaints about mixing up the rice by saying, 'Don't worry, the people who are going to buy this rice are only poor trash.'" (By Ryann Connell)