Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the leading food crops in the world and the staple food for more than half the world’s population. Brown rice is rich in nutritional ingredients and good for health. Recently, Japanese consumers have become interested in rice cultivars that promote health and protect lifestyle-related diseases. For examples of value-added brown rice products, pre-germinated brown rice, low-protein brown rice, and aseptic cooked rice from black rice and super-hard rice have been developed.The “Foods with Function Claims” of health claims for foods was launched in 2015 in Japan. Food products can be labeled with health effects when supported by clinical trials or systematic reviews. Many researchers are now trying to develop healthy rice products to prevent diabetes, hypertension, or dementia by the use of new specialty rice cultivars and novel advanced processing methods. This paper reviews the bioactive components, processing technologies, and application progress of brown rice in functional food development, providing references for expanding the applications of brown rice in the field of food health.