To provide a very convenient rice ball maker enabling production of rice balls from uncooked rice through a series of process without having no need of preparing boiling rice beforehand, and requiring no labor: and to provide a method for making rice balls comprising using the rice ball maker.

The rice ball maker has the following structure: a lid body 1 covers a container body 2, the lid body 1 and the container body 2 are respectively provided with a lot of water-leading holes H each having a smaller diameter than that of a rice grain so that the cubic capacity of the container body 2 varies according to the movement of the lid body 1. The method for making rice balls using the rice ball maker comprises the following process: a process of charging a proper amount of rice in the container body 2 of the rice ball maker; a process of cooking rice in the container body 2 of the rice ball maker; a press-molding process where cooked rice in the container body 2 of the rice ball maker is pressed into a rice ball mold by the lid body 1; and a process of taking the press-molded rice in the rice ball mold out of the rice ball maker.