"The reason that consumers have yet to see prices come down following the emergency stockpile release is due to the fact that most of the auctioned rice has yet to make its way to wholesalers."
Japan sets a low limit on rice imports before it starts a tariff regime that makes it much more expensive than market price. They could simply eliminate this to help consumers as a short term measure but refuse to do so on principle. Their rice market is a mess because of artificial measures meant to boost prices for Japanese farmers.
from a surface level personal research the money is not eaten by farmers, that in reality make a pittance but from a "rice consurtium", a middlemen that should represent farmer interest but in reality is basically a monopolistic corporation.