I am from southeast asia. Thai rice is lovely. But for dishes where I need the rice to be more "soft" and "sticky" without being mushy, japanese rice is wonderful. I just wish it wasn't so expensive. Import taxes makes japanese rice cost almost 4x or 5x more.
I am from southeast asia. I prefer Thai rice. It is a level of dryness/firmness that is in between japanese rice and indian basmati rice. I like japanese rice for certain dishes because of its taste/starchiness/stickyness, but they're always so expensive at supermarkets because of import tax. I wish japanese rice was cheaper outside of japan. For Indian/Thai style curry, Indian rice works because it helps deal with the spice. For japanese style curry, japanese rice is perfect because japanese curry is so sweet. Japanese say it's spicy, but maybe its my southeast asian tongue, but japanese curry is not spicy at all.
I live in southeast asia. Japanese rice is very expensive because of the import tax. Rice from thailand or vietnam is so much cheaper for us to import. This is why when I went to vacation in Japan, I made it a goal to eat as much rice as possible. It is not that I have not tasted it before. Japanese restaurants are everywhere in southeast asia after all. it is that it is so much more affordable. I hope the Japanese government does everything it can to support Japanese farmers. You should not take your rice for granted. Please value it.