TOKYO — Creamy risotto in a fluffy seafood souffle and gelato sprinkled with crunchy topping were among the delicacies concocted by master chefs in a cooking contest in Japan yesterday for American rice — a product that is struggling to crack a nation notorious for protecting its rice farmers.

The California Rice Masters competition was part of a $1 million campaign kicked off by the USA Rice Federation, an organization of American rice growers and millers, to promote Calrose rice. Calrose is widely used in the U.S. but is entering the restaurant and retail market here as kernel rice for the first time in September.

The eight chef finalists, chosen among 250 entries, labored over their dishes on stage as judges, reporters and guests watched — and later taste-tested — in a Tokyo hotel.

One contestant shaped a futuristic cakelike sushi decorated with curly seaweed. Another wrapped rice mixed with stir-fried seaweed in paper-thin beef slices grilled on a griddle.

But even winner Masataka Suzuki, 36, a chef specializing in French food who created the souffle, acknowledged he preferred eating Japanese rice and struggled cooking with Calrose, which he said wasn't as moist as Japanese rice.

"I tried to make it taste as close as I could to Japanese rice," he said. "Consumers would probably like it if it's cooked with a spoonful of butter."

Over the years, American rice growers have developed Japanese-style short-grain rice to appeal to this market.

Demand for such rice has grown in the U.S. and elsewhere, thanks to the booming popularity of sushi, but the appetite for U.S. rice has stayed flat in Japan, according to the USA Rice Federation.

The group's latest strategy is to switch to promoting Calrose medium-grain rice for soups, fried rice and other dishes, rather than compete directly against Japanese rice.

Japanese-style rice is usually cooked in plain water to be fluffy white on a bowl, and Japanese tend to be suspicious of foreign rice, stereotyping it as dry, tasteless and possibly unsafe.

"The tendency among consumers to favor Japanese rice is deeply rooted," Yasuo Sasaki, a Japanese agriculture ministry official, said in a telephone interview.

"Japanese rice is stickier and has a special fluffy feel."

Japan opened its rice market only in 1995, and the government still tightly controls the inflow of foreign rice, keeping tariffs for rice at 770 percent.

Most of the 770,000 tons of rice Japan imports a year end up as foreign aid, processed for crackers or sitting in storage. Only a small amount reaches consumers in restaurants and supermarkets.

At first, 34 tons of Calrose rice will trickle into restaurants and import stores.

Calrose medium-grain rice, which is cheaper than American short-grain rice, sells for about $1 a pound in the United States. The Japan price is still undecided.

Yukio Hattori, a culinary expert and commentator on the "Iron Chef" TV show, said American rice stands up to the best in gourmet cuisines but isn't as sweet as the most expensive Japanese rice.

"It lacks flavor when you chew it," he said after judging the contest.

Housewife Sachiyo Fukutani, who had tried U.S. rice only once before, said she enjoyed American rice.

"This is light and easy to eat," she said, spooning Suzuki's risotto. "There's a surprise element."