Matsuya's First 'New Rice Fair' in 7 Years: Free Rice Refills at All Stores

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title: “Matsuya’s First ‘New Rice Fair’ in 7 Years: Free Rice Refills at All Stores” categories:

• campaign tags:
• x
• announcement published: true created_at: “2026-09-28T21:19:49+09:00” updated_at: “2026-09-28T21:19:49+09:00” thumbnail: “https://cdn.gyumesy.com/articles/00oeex/thumbnail.webp” ogp_image: “https://cdn.gyumesy.com/articles/00oeex/ogp.png” source_url: “https://x.com/matsuya_foods/status/2104546463414165556” editor_comment: “The New Rice Fair used to offer free large servings, but this time it’s free refills. It’s great that every store is taking part, so you can go back for more new-crop rice without hesitation.” description: “On the night of September 28, Matsuya’s official X account announced a ‘New Rice Fair’ starting at 10:00 a.m. the next day, September 29, with free rice refills at all stores. It is the first announcement of a fair by this name since 2019, and it uses the wording ‘free refills’ rather than the former ‘free large serving’.” series_key: null related_articles:
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Matsuya’s official X account (@matsuya_foods) announced a “New Rice Fair” at 21:19 on September 28, set to begin at 10:00 a.m. the next day, September 29. The post says rice refills will be free at all stores. It is the first announcement of a campaign under the “New Rice Fair” name since autumn 2019, making this the fair’s return after seven years.

A Fall Tradition from 2009 to 2019, Absent Since 2020

The “New Rice Fair” was a recurring Matsuya event held every autumn (September–October) from 2009 through 2019. In every past announcement, the offer was a free Large Serving of rice with any set meal order (some stores excluded), a format that became established as a way to offer a free rice size-up during the new-crop season. The September 26, 2019 announcement likewise described it as “free Large Serving of rice with all set meals.”

From 2020 through 2025, however, no announcement of a campaign under the same name can be found for six years. The only new-rice communication during that period was the September 10, 2024 notice “Arrival of the Reiwa 6 Harvest ‘New Rice,’” which simply announced the rice’s arrival and came with no free offer. With this X announcement, the long-dormant “New Rice Fair” name is back after seven years.

There is another difference from past fairs, in the wording. While the 2009–2019 announcements said “free Large Serving of rice” (a size-up), this post says “free rice refills” (seconds). The same “free refills” phrasing was used in this year’s “One-Week Limited Chainwide Free Rice Refills for Set Meals” campaign, held on June 16 to mark Matsuya’s 60th founding anniversary. The body of this post does not limit the offer to set meals; it only adds “[All stores] Free rice refills.”

A Lead-In of Strung-Together Periods and a Campaign Name Framed by 🍚

There is not yet an official news article corresponding to this post. As of 21:00 on September 28, the news section of Matsuya’s official website carried no article announcing the 2026 “New Rice Fair,” so the X post alone is announcing the event ahead of time. The text does not appear to be a quote of an official notice and seems to have been written fresh.

The text is a short three lines. It opens with “Starting tomorrow at 10:00…” (trailing periods in the original), followed by the campaign name “🍚New Rice Fair🍚” and “[All stores] Free rice refills (╹◡╹),” with no background such as an anniversary or a new store opening. Compared with the posts announcing the same “free rice refills with set meals” in May and June, which were each long, context-rich messages of over 100 characters, this one is concise, conveying only the campaign name and the conditions.

The trailing-period style used in the opening line is rarely seen in past official X posts. The closing emoticon “(╹◡╹)” is a regular signature that appears in about a third of the official X account’s posts, but framing the campaign name with rice-bowl emoji 🍚 on both sides is unique to this post. In addition, while recent posts announcing fairs or freebies all used “!” in their text, this one uses no exclamation marks at all.

September 29 at 10:00: A Day of Overlapping Campaigns

September 29 (Tuesday) at 10:00, when the New Rice Fair begins, is also a day when announcements converge for Matsuya. At the same 10:00, the new menu item “Black Mapo Tofu Set Meal” (890 yen, 690 yen for the single item) goes on sale. Matsuya’s new menu items typically follow a pattern of being announced on Thursday and going on sale the following Tuesday at 10:00, and this set meal, announced on Thursday, September 24, fits the same interval.

The day is also “Meat Day,” with a Meat Day campaign running at Matsuya stores nationwide from 0:00 to 23:59. It offers 200 yen off the Yakiniku Beef Large Serving Set Meal and the Yakiniku Boneless Short Rib Large Serving Set Meal, and 100 yen off the Umatoma Hamburg Steak Set Meal and the Hamburg Steak with Brown Sauce Set Meal, all for orders placed through the app. A new menu launch, the start of the New Rice Fair, and an all-day Meat Day campaign all land on the same day, the 29th.