Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse
Sake to toast the end of civil war
The Minyu Net site has a report on a small celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Boshin Civil War, namely a special edition 300 ml bottle of sake on sale from JR East in Tohoku. The conflict was part of the Meiji Restoration, where social changes and pressure...
Grow your own rice, get your own sake
The Wine-What!? site has a report by Kaori Isono on a crowdfunding project supported by maverick Japanese businessman Takafumi Horie, where backers get to participate in the creation of a junmai daiginjō sake right from the start - and by "start" they mean...
2018 already looking good for sake exports
The Japan Agricultural News site has some good news - although we're not long past the middle of the year, things are already looking positive for exports and that includes sake.Trade statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Finance show that exports of agricultural...
Sake overseas: Dassai in NY, Kokuryū in HK and more
The Nikkan Gendai Digital site has an article on sake branching out overseas, following Dassai to New York and Kokuryū to Hong Kong. It starts by taking the positive outlook on where sake is going. Japan Customs (part of the Japanese Ministry of Finance) put the...
Fukui Prefecture’s challenger to Yamada Nishiki
The Chunichi Shinbun Web site reports on a new variety of sake rice that is setting its sights on the current king, Yamada Nishiki. The as yet unnamed variety was developed by the Fukui Prefecture Agricultural Experimental Station, who hope that its hidden potential...
Sake ice cream from Saga
You may be used to describing sake as having a mellow, rich aroma (芳醇, hōjun), but what about having that aroma tickle your nose as you lick an ice cream? The Oita Press site reports on a jizake (local sake) ice cream made by the Sachihime brewery in the sake town of...
Japanese sake and Swiss cheese
Something closer to home for me today - the Swissinfo site has an article on pairing Japanese sake with Swiss cheese.Natsuko Mikamo, a cheese lover and expert, lives in Basel in northern Switzerland. If you want to try pairing with cheese, she recommends finding the...
Lunch with the ladies of sake
The Jiji news agency reports on a collaboration between the Nagoya French restaurant Chez Kobe and Sakeraku (酒楽, "sake joy"), a sake brand that produces a line of sake made by 12 female tōji (杜氏, master brewers) and brewery owners (蔵元, kuramoto) - or, as it calls...
Just add umami – pairing sake with food
The Nifty News site has an article on pairing sake with food - any food, not just Japanese. The author points out that sake contains over 20 different amino acids, which can enhance savoury flavours in any dish. It also has an advantage over wine in terms of total...
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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.








