This study explores the spot and futures pricing of rice in Japan's central and local cities during the period 1900–1939 to detect how importing primary products from the colonies impacted the commodity market in the metropole. The imperial country imported colonial primary products different in quality than the domestic ones to accelerate industrialization and the export of industrial goods to the colonies. During the process of commodity market to accommodate the trade expansion of colonial goods, the futures prices in the central cities, which were hubs of colonial goods, reflected the price fluctuation of imported goods. On the other hand, the minor exchange in the local cities, which tended not to trade colonial goods, augmented its price formation function. Based on the geographical heterogeneity of colonial goods circulation, this mechanism promoted economic growth and widened economic disparity within the empire.