The United States is considering relaxing a trade agreement between the world's two largest economies to allow Japan to sell imported U.S. rice on the global market.

Japan is already preparing to ship 200,000 MT to the Philippines, but that is just a fraction of the 1.5 million MT of imported foreign rice that is stored in sacks piled high in air-conditioned government warehouses. 

In addition to the mountain of imported rice, Japan is also boosting its reserve of domestic grain by about a third to 1 million MT as "emergency measures" to prop up domestic prices.

 Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank, with experts blaming the soaring costs on trade restrictions, poor crop-growing conditions, higher energy and fertilizer tariffs and the rising production of bio fuels that rely on staples such as corn.