The Rice harvest in Japan comes in the fall. Rice from the new crop (新米 or shinmai) is a bit different from rice harvested pervious year and stored (古米 or komai), although this does not mean that the new rice is necessarily better. New rice is stickier and softer though, and also looks whiter and shinier, so it is definitely more popular. If kept properly rice will remain good for more than a year, and some people actually prefer old rice over new. It depends on what you are making, some dishes taste better with older rice. The rice from two years ago is called kokomai (古古米), the rice from three years ago is kokokomai (古古古米), etc. For every year that passes, the name will have extra “ko”.
