The cadmium (Cd) content in 47 strains of rice for brewing sake, 25 commercial sakes, and 25 commercial sake cakes was measured. The samples were prepared by microwave digestion using HNO3 and H2O2, and then analyzed by an inductively coupled sequential plasma spectrometer (ICP-AES). The Cd content in brown rice, 70% polished rice, sake cake, and sake was 29.9, 25.3, 154.7 μg/kg and 1.29 μg/l, respectively. When the Cd content of brown rice was represented as 100, the relative content of the polished rice was 78 (average of 7samples). These results showed that the Cd content was reduced slightly by the polishing process, and that the Cd in rice had hardly shifted to the sake, but shifted easily to the sake cake.