OSAKA – Police arrested a couple in Osaka Prefecture on Monday on suspicion of attempting to fraudulently import rice, disguising the shipment as mung beans.

The Osaka prefectural police department arrested Tran Thi Thu Huyen, 36, chief of a food trading company in the city of Higashiosaka and a Vietnamese citizen, and Tomoyuki Takeshige, 47, her husband, for alleged violation of the customs law.

The couple told police investigators before their arrest that they did not know rice was packed in the shipment, denying the allegations.

The suspects are alleged to have tried to import some 45 tons of rice from Vietnam, claiming it as mung beans, between June 11 and 25. The fraud was uncovered during cargo inspections by customs officers.

Customs officers found 2,272 cardboard boxes of rice behind those of mung beans in two containers unloaded in the city of Osaka, according to the police.

The suspects apparently tried to import rice at a lower tariff rate by pretending the boxes contained mung beans.

The police are looking at the possibility that the couple attempted to fraudulently import rice for sale in Japan, where prices for the food staple have remained at high levels since summer 2024.

The average price of rice sold at some 1,000 supermarkets across the country hit a record high of ¥4,285 per 5 kilograms in mid-May, about a month before the suspects’ alleged attempt, according to data from the agriculture ministry.

Published Date: October 7, 2025