In order to screen japonica rice varieties suitable for processing fresh instant rice and establish a simple and practicable method for evaluating the adaptability of raw materials, a total of 30 japonica rice varieties from northeast China were selected as the test samples, followed by the production of fresh instant rice. The effect of appearance, main components, pasting and cooking properties of japonica rice on eating quality of fresh instant rice were investigated by descriptive and correlation analysis. The results showed that there were differences in 22 evaluation indicators among different japonica rice varieties. Six indicators with variable coefficients exceeding 10%, in descending order were iodine color value, dry matter of rice soup, breakdown value, holding strength, length-width ratio and b*. This indicated that the six indicators were more representative. Correlation analysis showed that the length-width ratio was significantly positively correlated with adhesiveness, chewiness, and cohesiveness (P<0.05), and the breakdown value was significantly negatively correlated with cohesiveness, adhesiveness, and chewiness (P<0.05). The iodine blue value and dry matter of rice soup were extremely significantly positively correlated with elasticity and stickiness (P<0.01).Two representative quality indexes of fresh instant rice were iodine color value and breakdown value selected by factor analysis and stepwise regression analysis. And the comprehensive quality evaluation model of fresh instant rice was obtained.The fitting degree between the comprehensive scores of the model and the sensory scores was 0.7064, indicating that the model could accurately evaluate the eating quality of fresh instant rice. And 11 kinds of japonica rice were suitable for processing fresh instant rice by cluster analysis. This study aimed to provide a scientific basis for effectively selection of raw materials for the production of fresh instant rice.