The cost of rice production in China has been rising year by year, continuously reducing profit margins, which is restricting the development of the rice industry, reducing the enthusiasm of rice farmers for planting, and even affecting food security. The United States of America and Japan represent two advanced development models of rice production in the world. By comparing and analyzing the change trends of rice production cost and income structure as well as production efficiency in China, the United States of America and Japan, we concluded that China’s rice production has low investment in fixed assets, high labor costs, unstable land costs, a high proportion of fertilizer inputs, weak credit support, and low contribution to technological advancement from a structural point of view. In view of the trend of change in the past 30 years, Japan’s production efficiency remained stable, China’s input-output ratio was on a downward trend, the growth rate of land output rate was much lower than that of the United States of America, and the absolute level of labor productivity was lower than that of Japan. These facts reflected that China’s rice technology innovation application and management system mechanism on the effect of reducing costs and increasing efficiency lagged behind those of the United States of America and Japan. The development of China’s rice industry needs to base on the long-term coexistence of large-scale operations and small-scale operations, classifying and promoting suitable development models, accelerating the promotion and application of locally applicable varieties and green high-yielding technologies, and continuing to implement rice support policies.