Sushi rice is a preparation of rice most commonly in preparing sushi. Sushi rice is made with a short-grained Japanese rice, and traditionally is white. It is mixed with sugar, salt, and rice vinegar, and may also include kombu and sake. Sushi rice is sometimes made with other types of rice, and even with wild rice, which is not technically a rice.

Sushi rice is, itself, an essential part of sushi, and in many ways is the defining feature of sushi. The most classic type of sushi, nigiri-zushi, is simply a mound of pressed sushi rice with fish on top of it. Nigiri-zushi may sometimes include nori seaweed in a thin strip around it, especially nigiri-zushi using squid or eel. The most common type of sushi found in the west, however, is maki-zushi. Maki-zushi consists of rolls of sushi rice, wrapped with nori seaweed either on the inside or the outside, and some sort of filling.

Sushi rice must be quite sticky to truly function as sushi rice. This is especially true in dishes such as uramaki, where the rice is on the outside of the nori, and so must cling to it. Sushi rice aims for a level of stickiness where all of the rice sticks firmly together, but does not become so sticky that it becomes an amorphous mash of rice. Because long-grained rice tends to be fairly dry, it is not appropriate as a sushi rice, since the lack of moisture makes it insufficiently sticky. Short-grained rice is wet enough that when properly prepared it is quite sticky.

To cook sushi rice, one prepares the Japanese rice as usual, cooking it and letting it steam for a while. The sauce is then prepared, mixing the sugar, salt, and rice vinegar together in a bowl. The sugar should be fully dissolved on a low heat, and then the mixture should be allowed to cool. The steamed rice, while still hot, should then be spread out in a large wooden or ceramic bowl, or on a large plate. The sauce is then drizzled on top of the rice, and the sushi rice is quickly folded over itself. For particularly shiny sushi rice, a fan can be set up to cool and dry the rice as the sauce is being mixed in.

The mixture of the sauce itself is what makes different sushi rice preparations. At its most basic, three cups of dry sushi rice would use about one teaspoon of salt, three tablespoons of sugar, and a third of a cup of rice vinegar. Different regions have their own versions of this recipe. For example, in Tokyo, two teaspoons of salt might be used, while in Osaka, four or even five tablespoons of sugar would be used, resulting in much sweeter sushi rice. Some regions also add little pieces of dried kombu seaweed, or small amounts of Japanese rice wine, sake, to spruce up the recipe a bit.