Sake News from Japan

The Kurashiki Keizai Shinbun reports on a sake bar in Okayama Prefecture offering locals a new way to enjoy sake at home, with an original range from local breweries in smaller bottles. Suiyōbi [粋酔日, something like “stylish intoxication day”?] specialises in sake from...

The global pandemic has left one Shiga Prefecture brewery high and dry after 10,000 bottles of junmai daiginjō brewed for export suddenly had nowhere to go. Domestic demand is low but it also costs them to keep it in storage, so they’re selling it in Japan as a last...

Aiga Suzuki reports for the Forbes Japan Career “Do you know this job?” column on a traditional occupation being given a new lease of life to allow it to carry on. The Miyasaka sake brewery in Suwa, Nagano, is famous for its Masumi label. But the young head of the...

How does a sake become certified for a Geographical Indication (GI)? Sankei News reports on the certification process for the Harima GI, where 52 sake had their aroma and flavour are checked to see if they measured up to the GI standard. Harima has an examination...

Atsuo Okubo (text) and Jun Utagawa (photos) report for Pen Online, covered in Yahoo Japan News, on some more sake magic from innovative pairing expert Marie Chiba, owner of the GEM by Moto and Know by Moto bars in Tokyo. As many more people find themselves drinking at...

Minyū Net, the online version of the Fukushima Minyū Shinbun newspaper, reports on a recent survey of sake lovers. Around 100 people identifying themselves as liking sake replied to a survey about one one-cup [180 ml] serving size sake put out by the Sakebunka...

Hiroshi Yoshii, head of the Fukuoka Tax Bureau, takes on the subject of increasing the potential of Japanese alcohol in all its forms in a column in the Sankei News. [All alcohol production in Japan is regulated by the National Tax Agency.] Born in 1940 in Tokyo and a...

Kikisake-shi and Sake Expert [yes, it’s a qualification in Japan] Tomoko Takiguchi writes for Nikkei Style, reported in Yahoo Japan News, on the rise of the ginjō style in Japan and around the world, with a focus on one of the breweries responsible – Dewazakura in...

The Sankei News reports on the development of a new yeast in Kagawa Prefecture – and how the prefectural laboratory struggled to get it to produce enough alcohol. The new sake yeast was sampled from olives, a famous local product, and sake brewed with it was released...