Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy and partial least squares (PLS) regression were used to predict the amylose content of polished rice. Spectral reflectance data in a wavelength range of 1,000 to 2,500 nm were obtained with a commercial spectrophotometer for 60 different varieties of Korean rice. For a comparison of this spectroscopic method to a standard chemical analysis, the amylose contents of the tested rice samples were determined by the iodine-blue colorimetric method. The highest correlation for the rice amylose ($R^2=0.94$, standard error of prediction=0.20% amylose content) was obtained when using the FT-NIR spectrum data pre-treated with normalization, the first derivative, smoothing, and scattering correction.