Abstract: The quality and palatability characteristics of 22 Japanese rice varieties（origin + cultivation）purchased from Ishidan Mall in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan were determined; the relationship between hardness and physicochemical indexes of rice and the relationship between palatability evaluation items and palatability were analyzed. The results showed that the average whiteness of Japanese milled rice samples was 40.0, the length was 4.57 mm, the width was 2.78 mm, the thickness was 1.94 mm, the protein content was 6.14 %, the amylose content was 18.3 %, the hardness was 3.92 kgf, the viscosity was 0.78 kgf and the elasticity was 0.71 kgf. The indices of all milled rice samples were different, but they tended to be stable as a whole. The multiple correlation analysis between the five palatability evaluation items and the comprehensive evaluation showed that the multiple correlation coefficient was 0.834***, which supports that these five palatability evaluation items can be used as the main factors to discriminate the palatability of rice. The contribution rate of appearance, smell, taste, viscosity and hardness to palatability was successively from large to small: taste（44.0%）, appearance（26.5%）, smell（12.2%）, viscosity（10.8%）and hardness（6.5%）, among which the hardness of rice was positively correlated with protein content but negatively correlated with grain thickness.

Key words: rice, Japanese rice, palatability characteristics, palatability evaluation, physicochemical indexes