Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse
The rise and rise of non-alcoholic everything, including sake
Excite News carries an article by Takamasa Kujirai charting the popularity and evolution of non-alcoholic drinks. A lot of the article is about beer and chūhai, but I still found it worth translating to get an idea of what wider concerns the sake industry is – or is...
Big brewery turns to biotechnology to knock out off-flavours
The Kochi Shinbun carries a story about a new yeast developed by brewing giant Gekkeikan for a new junmai entry in their THE SHOT series of 180 ml bottled sake. While many sake breweries are small (tiny) family-owned and run businesses, a handful – including Gekkeikan...
A sake to warm your winter nights
PR Times carries a press release for THE KAN, a sake made to be drunk like a coffee. Its dry version was very popular when released last year, so Yama no Kotobuki Shuzō have brought it back this year as a way to spend a cosy night in with some atsukan [熱燗, sake heated...
One way to introduce sake
News site Jiji.com carries a press release announcing round 2 of Nihonshu Nyumon (日本酒入門) – an introduction to sake from the company Warehouse Japan. [The first round was announced in August 2020 and looks identical.] The service ships samples and a textbook to serve...
Brewers’ alma mater supporting kura hit by the pandemic
The Kyodo Keizai Shinbun reports on a new project from the Tokyo University of Agriculture that aims to offer emergency support to 41 sake breweries across the country. Based in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, the Tokyo University of Agriculture (東京農業大学, Tōkyō Nōgyō Daigaku or...
For those who like their sake hot, cold and in between
Can’t decide if you want your sake hot or cold? PR Times has a press release for a piece of equipment that will do both. Hiyakan, a heating-and-cooling sake server designed to manage anything from hiya (10°C) to atsukan (55°C), is currently raising funds on Japanese...
Ishikawa Prefecture celebrates a long-awaited new sake rice
The News24.jp site has a very brief article with accompanying video [50 seconds] from a news segment on celebrations for a new jizake [地酒, local/regional sake] brewed with a recently developed strain of rice. Ishikawa Prefecture spent 11 years developing the new...
Small price, big difference – how one sake brewery is handling the tax cut
Yahoo News Japan carries an article from KHB Higashi Nihon Hōsō about the revised tobacco and alcohol taxes that came into effect on 1 October 2020 [coincidentally Sake Day] and how one sake brewery reacted in a slightly unexpected way. Wine and the so-called “third...
Creating a sustainable sake supply chain
News release site Jiji.com has a press release from SAKE HUNDRED, part of Clear, Inc. [who also run the Kurand chain of all-you-can-drink sake bars and the SAKETIMES site] on their attempt to support sustainable agriculture. They aim to support their partner sake...
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The translations/summaries of Japanese language news articles or other resources, personal commentary and other content provided on this site or through its associated newsletter are part of a personal project to increase the amount of information about Japanese sake and related fields available in English.
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All translations/summaries and other content are © 2017-2026 Arline Lyons.