Is there much point in Japan trying to sell rice to China, especially as that country is the world’s biggest producer of the grain? Japan thinks so, and wants to, but is having a problem getting around inspections procedures, Chinese tastes and the price of its products. Now, Japan believes it has a solution with packages of heat-and-eat rice. It is touting the product as free of chemicals and other pollutants, and handy as a standby for cooking. In a recent promotion blitz in Shanghai, Koji Inoue, director-general for the Food Industry Affairs Bureau at the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, pitched the product to Chinese reporters and food industry officials as the answer to parental concerns about the health of their offspring.