For sake brewers (and presumably many other food and drink producers) Christmas in Japan comes at New Year. The graph above from Diamond Online shows sales of all types of sake between April 2024 and March 2025, with a massive spike in December attributed to buying sake as a New Year gift. (Orange bars show purchase value, green line shows comparison against the previous year.)
The article also says that recent price increases have split demand between reasonably priced high-volume products on one end, and small-volume added-value products on the other. The domestic market is still slightly down on last year, although junmai ginjo has bucked that trend, and drinking while out has decreased while drinking at home remains stable.
The article links the increase in purchases of sake from October to the release of winter foods such as nabe which are cross-promoted with sake. Breweries are also trying to appeal to consumers in summer with sake that can be enjoyed highball-style with soda, and products such as nigori with lemon designed to appeal to younger drinkers.
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日本酒市場、食品とのクロスMDを強化し、日本酒とのタッチポイントを増やす (Diamond Chain Store Online, 23 May 2025, Japanese).
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