Meeting the demand for high-quality japonica rice is a major challenge facing China’s grain security. In the present study, a two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the yield, quality, and profitability of japonica rice varieties(including hybrids and inbreds) grown in the late season as compared with local elite indica hybrids in a double rice cropping system of China where indicas are traditionally planted. Indica hybrids had significantly longer vegetative(from sowing to heading) and total(from sowing to maturity) growth durations than japonicas in both2011 and 2012, while reproductive growth duration(from heading to maturity) was longer for indica hybrids than for japonicas in 2011 but not in 2012. Indica hybrids produced higher grain yield than japonicas in 2011, but with no significant differences in 2012. Japonicas had higher brown rice, milled rice, and head rice percentages than indicas, but had lower gelatinization temperature and amylose content,while with no significant differences in gel consistency and protein content. Indica hybrids tended to have lower chalky grain percentage and chalkiness degree than japonicas, though the differences were not statistically significant due to large genotypic variations. The net returns were 16.1% and 9.9% greater for indica hybrids than for japonica hybrids and japonica inbreds in 2011, with only 3.8% and 1.3% in2012, respectively. Thus, our results suggest that replacing indicas with japonica varieties as late rice may not be feasible at the present site unless locally adapted japonica varieties are developed. Meeting the demand for high-quality japonica rice is a major challenge facing China’s grain security. In the present study, a two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the yield, quality, and profitability of japonica rice varieties (including hybrids and inbreds) grown in the late season as compared with local elite indica hybrids in a double rice cropping system of China where indicas are traditionally planted. Indica hybrids had significantly longer vegetative (from sowing to heading) and total (from sowing to maturity) growth durations than japonicas in both 2011 and 2012, while reproductive growth duration (from heading to maturity) was longer for indica hybrids than for japonicas in 2011 but not in 2012. Indica hybrids produced higher grain yield than japonicas in 2011, with no significant differences in 2012. Japonicas had higher brown rice, milled rice, and head rice percentages than indicas, but had lower gelatinization temperature and amylose content, while with no significant differences in gel consistency and protein content. The net returns were 16.1% and 9.9% greater for indica hybrids than for japonica hybrids and japonica inbreds in 2011, with only 3.8% and 1.3% in 2012, respectively. Thus, our results suggest that accommodating indicas with japonica varieties as late rice may not be feasible at the present site unless locally adapted japonica varieties are developed .