ABSTRACT Genetic analysis of the rice cultivar Aichi Asahi and some other Japanese cultivars for the high resistance to the blast fungus isolate CHNOS58-3-1 from China was performed. All the Japanese differential cultivars were resistant to the isolate except for 'Pi No. 4', which showed moderate resistance. Analysis of the F(2) population of a cross of the susceptible cultivar Reiho and the resistant cultivar Aichi Asahi indicated that the resistance of 'Aichi Asahi' to the isolate was conferred by one dominant gene. To identify the gene in other Japanese differential cultivars, AK lines, which were derived from a cross of 'Aichi Asahi' x 'K59' and assumed to harbor no known genes except for the new one, were used for the allelism tests. The new, completely dominant resistance gene was detected in 14 differential cultivars, but not in 'Pi No. 4', 'Yashiro-mochi', and 'K1', and was designated as Pi19(t). Pi19(t) was allelic or closely linked to Pita(2) on chromosome 12. Pi19(t) was extensively distributed among Japanese traditional local cultivars.