The eating and cooking qualities of rice grains are the major determinants of consumer preference and, consequently, the economic value of a specific rice variety. These two qualities are largely determined by the physicochemical properties of the starch, i.e. the starch composition, of the rice grain. In our study, we determined the genetic factors responsible for the physicochemical properties of starch in recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of japonica cv