At the end of the semester, a couple of student presentations in one of my classes dealt with drinking in Japan. To be honest, both seemed sterotypical and rather dated. By coincidence (?) several news articles were published around the same time to confirm my fears (about the presentations) and offer new, contemporary perspectives. As a wise man once said, "The Times They Are A-Changin'..."
Monster Post on Recent Drinking Related Subjects in Japan
Contents:
I. Japan’s workplace drinking party communication is unnecessary, says majority of workers in survey (12/2/24)
II. Japan sake-brewing joins UNESCO intangible heritage list (12/5/24)
III. Why would a Japanese bartender open a nonalcoholic bar?(12/6/24)
IV. Hundreds of izakaya going bust as prices rise and customers change (12/9/24)
V. What do nondrinkers really feel about year-end parties? (12/16/24)
VI. Once taboo, more Japanese women are brewing sake (12/17/24)
VII. Not paying any dating expenses at all' listed as domestic violence by Japanese gov't agency (12/17/24)
VIII. Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan (1/3/25)
I. Japan’s workplace drinking party communication is unnecessary, says majority of workers in survey (12/2/24)
However, to some people those invites feel more like orders, since nominication being such an engrained part of workplace atmosphere can make it hard to opt out of drinking sessions without looking like you’re uninterested in fostering communication with your colleagues. Many would also argue that while organic, insightful conversations about a wide range of topics is presented as the nominication ideal, in actuality you’re just as likely to spend the whole drinking party listening to coworkers and bosses gripe and gossip about petty grudges or problems in their personal lives, puff themselves up as they brag about some insignificant accomplishment, and tell jokes that aren’t nearly as funny, fresh, or appropriate as they think they are.
Nippon Life Insurance Company recently released the results of a workplace atmosphere survey which collected responses from 11,377 people with a roughly even split between men and women. When asked if they thought nominication was necessary, the majority, 56.4 percent, said no, it’s not.
Surprisingly, this attitude wasn’t found only among younger workers. When responses were sorted by age, a majority of all age groups said nominication isn’t necessary, with less than five percent in variation between demographics.
Nominication is not necessary.
● Respondents in their 20s: 55.7 percent
● Respondents in their 30s: 57 percent
● Respondents in their 40s: 55.4 percent
● Respondents in their 50s: 56.2 percent
● Respondents in their 60s: 56.2 percent
● Respondents in their 70s: 59.8 percent
On the other hand, there was a large difference in answers between men and women, with a slim majority of men actually being in favor of nominication, while women as a group were especially opposed to the idea.
Is nominication necessary?
● Men
Yes: 52.1 percent
No: 47.9 percent
● Women
Yes: 34.3 percent
No: 65.5 percent
As for why respondents are averse to nominication, the top answer, from 48,3 percent of the anti-nominication group (and 51.6 percent of women), was Ki wo tsukau. This is a Japanese phrase that describes having to put on social niceties, make small talk, and otherwise keep up a tactful atmosphere, but in a situation where that doesn’t come naturally or easily. This was followed by “Drinking with coworkers just feels like I’m working overtime” (33.7 percent of respondents) and “I don’t like alcohol” (28.8 percent of respondents).
However, while many of the respondents aren’t fond of going for drinks with coworkers, that doesn’t mean they don’t see any value in face-to-face communication, with 87.2 percent of them (87.1 percent of men and 87.7 percent of women) saying it’s necessary to keep work going smoothly.
Perhaps the most important figures from the survey are the responses to the question “Do you want to work for a company that has nominication?” 70.2 percent said they did not (61.9 percent of men and a whopping 78.6 percent of women), so companies looking to attract talent in Japan will likely benefit from finding ways to promote communication without getting liquored up first.
Source: Nippon Life Insurance Company via Tele Asa News via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin
Insert images: Pakutaso
Source:
https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/japan%E2%80%99s-workplace-drinking-party-communication-is-unnecessary-says-majority-of-workers-in-survey
II. Japan sake-brewing joins UNESCO intangible heritage list (12/5/24)
The smooth rice wine that plays a crucial role in Japan's culinary traditions was enshrined on Wednesday by UNESCO on its list of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity."
At a meeting in Luque, Paraguay, members of UNESCO’s committee for safeguarding humanity's cultural heritage voted to recognize 45 cultural practices and products around the world, including Brazilian white cheese, Caribbean cassava bread and Palestinian olive oil soap.
Unlike UNESCO’s World Heritage List, which includes sites considered important to humanity like the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Intangible Cultural Heritage designation names products and practices of different cultures that are deserving of recognition.
A Japanese delegation welcomed the announcement in Luque.
“Sake is considered a divine gift and is essential for social and cultural events in Japan,” Takehiro Kano, the Japanese ambassador to UNESCO, told The Associated Press.
The basic ingredients of sake are few: rice, water, yeast and koji, a rice mold, which breaks down the starches into fermentable sugars like malting does in beer production. The whole two-monthlong process of steaming, stirring, fermenting and pressing can be grueling.
The rice — which wields tremendous marketing power as part of Japan's broader cultural identity — is key to the alcoholic brew.
For a product to be categorized Japanese sake, the rice must be Japanese.
The UNESCO recognition, the delegation said, captured more than the craft knowledge of making high-quality sake. It also honored a tradition dating back some 1,000 years — sake makes a cameo in Japan’s famous 11th century novel, “The Tale of Genji,” as the drink of choice in the refined Heian court.
Now, officials hope to restore sake's image as Japan's premier alcoholic drink even as the younger drinkers in the country switch to imported wine or domestic beer and whiskey.
“It means a lot to Japan and to the Japanese,” Kano said of the UNESCO designation. "This will help to renew interest in traditional sake elaboration.”
Also, Japanese breweries have expressed hope that the listing could give a little lift to the country's export economy as the popularity of sake booms around the world and in the United States amid heightened interest in Japanese cuisine.
Sake exports, mostly to the U.S. and China, now rake in over $265 million a year, according to the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, a trade group.
Japan's delegation appeared ready to celebrate on Wednesday — in classic Japanese style.
After the announcement, Kano raised a cypress box full of sake to toast the alcoholic brew and cultural rite.
Source:
https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-sake-brewing-added-to-unesco-intangible-heritage
III. Why would a Japanese bartender open a nonalcoholic bar?(12/6/24)
Shuzo Nagumo is the CEO of Spirits & Sharing, an alcohol-related services company which owns seven Tokyo bars.
“The nonalcoholic beverage market is larger than the alcoholic market, and further innovation in nonalcoholic drinks is expected to continue in the future,” Nagumo said.
Nagumo’s chief technical officer, Manabu Ito, has around 37 years of bar experience.
“When I first started working during the economic bubble era, Japan was full of hardworking people who stayed late and drank heavily to keep going. Younger people, in particular, drank a lot back then.”
Ito said younger people today seem to drink with a clearer purpose. They research bars and drinks online, then choose them based on their personal likes. Also, older people are drinking noticeably less, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Japanese DNA variations make it impossible for certain individuals to process alcohol,” said Nagumo.
A bar manager at a luxury hotel venue shared another reason: “I only drink alcohol once a week to preserve my palate.”
Hiroaki Takahashi is the bar manager of Japan’s first nonalcoholic bar, Tokyo’s Low-Non-Bar, which opened in 2020.
Referring to its founder, Eiji Miyazawa, Takahashi said: “He stopped drinking around 2018 due to health reasons. Nowadays, he sometimes drinks in small amounts because he loves bars.
“As for myself, I have been a bartender since the age of 20, but I rarely drank outside of studying in bars until I turned 30, as alcohol would negatively affect my health.”
Takahashi adds premium ingredients like seasonal organic produce, truffle-infused honey, homemade syrups and aromatic waters to subtle-tasting, alcohol-free spirits — with complex, flavorsome results.
Originally, the whole menu was zero-alcohol. After COVID travel bans ended, liquor was added to meet foreigners’ requests. The current clientele is mostly in their 30s: about 40% male, 60% female, 60% teetotallers and 40% drinkers.
However, Takahashi thinks Japan remains behind bars overseas — like a "nonalcoholic isolation state” — because it bans nonalcoholic spirit imports due to regulations on additives.
In 2024, Low-Non-Bar released its own nonalcoholic gin, Ginnie. Without alcohol’s preservative and flavor extracting properties, it has a shorter shelf-life and requires twice the amount of botanicals compared to alcoholic gin.
Three alcohol-free Ginnie cordials with extracts like cypress, vanilla and dealcoholized sake are also available.
“The reason why I make nonalcoholic cocktails is because I want to be ready to pass on the culture of the bar, which I love, to the next generation.” In the past two years, he’s received many nonalcohol requests from young people, but also people in their 40s.
Bar Ixey features “drinkable perfumes” crafted with botanicals (many from Oda’s private herb garden) and an aroma extractor. The fragrances are 10 to 100 times more concentrated than a typical herbal tea.
Without ethanol’s viscosity, creating texture in alcohol-free drinks is challenging.
“It is important to compensate for a lack of body by adding concentrated aroma. Whether or not it has a concentrated aroma makes a huge difference,” Oda explained.
“Then the Japanese government banned the serving of alcohol after 8 p.m., so we did a nonalcohol bar. This was one of those grand social experiments that rarely happen, because without it, customers would never have had three nonalcoholic cocktails all in a row.”
Oda distilled about 140 different plants, and chose the best results to create Miatina, a 0%- alcohol spirit. Today, there are three Miatina varieties, with essences like cedar, mushroom and lavender.
Oda’s second venue, Ixey Non-Alcoholic Spirits Kyoto Distillery & Salon, opened in 2022 in Gojo.
“The next challenge is a hands-on distilling class. We plan to start at the beginning of the year. With alcohol, it is not possible for customers to take home their own alcohol made at the distillery, but with nonalcoholic drinks it is possible.”
“I teach at a cooking school. We are also developing the menus of restaurants. Cocktail pairing is very interesting and difficult. It's worth the challenge. We held collaboration events with various restaurants such as sushi, soba, French, Italian, Indian and so on,” Tomita said.
“It has become a matter of course not to drink alcohol when eating out,” Tomita observes.
“People who have been forced to drink alcohol up until now are happy,” he says. “Alcohol harassment is gone.”
You can also pick flavors like pumpkin and caramel, or azuki beans and blue cheese from a separate menu.
“Nonalcoholic gin is very beautiful and delicate. And it's expensive,” Tomita shared. One brand he uses is Nema, Japan’s first nonalcoholic gin.
Tomita’s boundless creativity spills over to a sister venue nearby. Bar Nano Femto is run by bartender Marie Mizuno and follows the same theme, but with different recipes.
Amongst his Tokyo bars, Folklore sells the most mocktails. It also specializes in nihonshu (Japanese rice wine, or sake) with relatively low, 14-18% alcohol content and shochu (distilled Japanese spirit made from potato, rice or wheat).
Ito’s bar, Mixology Heritage, is classic style (with a whisky emphasis). Nonalcoholic choices are limited but its new menu — for the first time — features a code explaining each drink’s alcohol level.
Ito also thinks bartenders today are exercising more and cutting back on alcohol.
And himself? “I used to drink until morning in the past, but now I’ve shifted to having just a little drink after work. On my days off, I enjoy taking my time and savoring drinks when I have the opportunity to relax.”
Japan’s drinking habits have changed, but watching these professionals blend cutting-edge mixology with the precision and elegance of their classic training — you feel assured that the beauty of Japanese bar culture will evolve and survive.
More bars with no/low alcohol cocktails
Tokyo: Peter: The Bar, Tokyo Confidential, The Bar Sazerac
Yokohama: Cocktail Bar Nemanja
Osaka: Bar Nayuta, Kirip Truman, Green Spot, The Bar Elixir-k
Kobe: Mockteria
Nara: Lamp Bar
Nagoya: Bar Stair
Fukuoka: The Roam Bar
Matsuyama: Le Club
Source:
https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/why-would-japanese-bartender-open-a-nonalcoholic-bar
IV. Hundreds of izakaya going bust as prices rise and customers change (12/9/24)
Izakaya are usually small, cozy places where the work is labor-intensive and relatively personal.
Limited opportunities exist for automation and economies of scale, so izakaya cannot easily achieve efficiencies needed when prices are rising and budgets are squeezed. It’s tough to mechanize the charms of such establishments.
In a separate survey, Teikoku Databank said that bankruptcies in general hit 746 in August, a decade-plus high for that month. The number of bankruptcies so far this year is the highest since 2015.
Small companies have been hit especially hard.
“This trend is likely to continue, with labor shortages and rising interest rates,” said Norihiro Yamaguchi, senior Japan economist at Oxford Economics.
Inflation in Japan has been elevated in recent years, hitting a four-decade-plus high in 2023. It remains above 2%.
The government has been working to bring an end to an era of deflation with liberal spending, while the Bank of Japan had kept rates at or near zero for years.
Pay has not been keeping up. Real wages declined for more than two years through June as price rises ate away at nominal pay increases. Households have been forced to cut back to make ends meet, and izakaya have suffered.
Teikoku Databank said that people have reduced their visits to these restaurants, while the operations are forced to pay more for food, drink and labor. Izakaya have also been hit with declining alcohol consumption and shifts in social behavior following the pandemic, it added.
The data company said that about 40% of izakaya were losing money in fiscal 2023, while some have decided to pivot into cafes or burger joints. Watami, an izakaya operator, said in October that it had acquired the Japan operations of Subway, as part of a diversification and growth push.
“The key to survive under an inflationary environment is to have a strong pricing power, as costs increase inevitably,” Yamaguchi said, calling it a “tough environment” for small restaurants operating in a highly competitive environment.
“For them, increasing costs, such as high labor costs, energy costs and material costs, hit their profit directly,” he said.
Teikoku Databank noted that pharmacies are also having a tough time. Bankruptcies through the first 11 months of this year totaled 34, and the debts of failed pharmacies is the most in more than a decade. It expects that 37 could be out of business by the end of the year.
Aging owners, high competition and the bankruptcies of medical institutions associated with pharmacies were blamed for the high number of bankruptcies.
“Restaurants are facing rises in material and labor costs, and bankruptcies are on the rise,” said Koichi Fujishiro, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
“However, next year is expected to see continued strong nominal wage growth, while inflation may ease, leading to higher real household incomes. This increase in income should benefit expenditures such as on food and daily necessities, which have become targets of cost-cutting amid inflation."
Source:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/12/09/economy/izakaya-bankruptcies-teikoku/
V. What do nondrinkers really feel about year-end parties? (12/16/24)
Despite non-drinkers being in the 30% minority, 53% of all survey respondents nonetheless agreed that nominication -- a bilingual portmanteau combining nomi (to drink) and communication -- was an essential element of Japanese society.
Still, as Weekly Playboy (Dec 30) points out, non-drinkers in Japan are known to suffer from discrimination in the form of aruhara (alcohol harassment). And others, concerned over becoming marginalized, admit they join in rather than risk being regarded as a party pooper.
Perhaps because drinking tapered off sharply during the COVID pandemic, attitudes toward alcohol have nonetheless been shifting in non-drinkers' favor. Rather than simply conforming to the dominant drinking culture, more people now abstain from alcohol not only out of concern for their physical constitution, but also as a matter of personal preference. This has also seen the term sobaa kyuriasu (sober curious) -- derived from the eponymous title of a book published in 2019 by British journalist Ruby Warrington -- become increasingly popularized.
To obtain a grasp of non-drinkers' attitudes, Weekly Playboy posed a series of questions to 1,000 males and females in range of 20 to 69 years of age.
Over half the total (53.9%) responded that they lack much of a capacity for alcohol, with 27.7% admitting they cannot hold alcohol at all. Of the latter, a whopping 73% replied that they could not handle even the slightest amount. Only 13.4% of all subjects said they had a relatively strong tolerance for alcoholic beverages.
Among the non-drinkers a variety of reasons were given for their aversion to alcohol: 52.5% said it made them feel unpleasant, with some saying they simply disliked the taste of alcoholic beverages. A man in his 40s said he refrained due to residual effects of COVID-19. Several others claimed they were allergic to alcohol.
Overall, 45.5% of the non-drinkers said they didn't like the feeling of being inebriated; 29.5% said booze gave them headaches; 14% said drinking made them doze off; and 5% said drinking was physically painful.
Understandably, roughly three out of four of the non-drinkers said they disliked attending social events that included drinking. Another 18% said they were able to tolerate the activity, and 5% felt favorably disposed toward it. Only 3%, however, said they enjoyed such events.
Interestingly, when non-drinkers were asked to specify what they disliked most about drinking parties, the largest objection, stated by 50.68%, was that they felt they were obliged to pay more than their fair share in cases of warikan (splitting the tab), since soft drinks are typically priced cheaper than alcohol.
Others complained that they felt pressure on them to drink, said by 31.08%; that they had the experience of feeling coerced into drinking (18.92%); and because drinking soft drinks alone made them feel bored (16.22%).
The magazine invited four non-drinking survey participants, two males and two females aged between 30 and 49 years, to take part in a roundtable discussion.
"If you can't drink alcohol, people in your circle might not invite you to drinking parties out of a sense of consideration," one told the magazine. "But I want people to invite me without such a concern. When someone invites me, I'm still happy to go, even if I can't drink."
Another non-drinker reflected similar tolerance, saying "I also want people to drink as much as they want without worrying about anything. Drinking parties are a place for communication, and deep conversations can emerge from them. I don't think of it as just being a place merely to drink, so I'd still like to participate as much as possible."
Source:
https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/what-do-nondrinkers-really-feel-about-year-end-parties
VI. Once taboo, more Japanese women are brewing sake (12/17/24)
She stands on an uneven narrow wooden platform over a massive tank containing more than 3,000 liters of a bubbling soup of steamed rice, water and a rice mold known as koji, and gives it a good mix with a long paddle.
“The morning hours are crucial in sake making,” said Takahashi, 43. Her brewery is in Nagano Prefecture, a region known for its sake making.
Takahashi is one of a small group of female toji, or master sake brewers. Only 33 female toji are registered in Japan’s Toji Guild Association out of more than a thousand breweries nationwide.
That’s more than several decades ago. Women were largely excluded from sake production until after World War II.
Sake making has a history of more than a thousand years, with strong roots in Japan's traditional Shinto religion.
But when the liquor began to be mass produced during the Edo period, from 1603 until 1868, an unspoken rule barred women from breweries.
The reasons behind the ban remain obscure. One theory is that women were considered impure because of menstruation and were therefore excluded from sacred spaces, said Yasuyuki Kishi, vice director of the Sakeology Center at Niigata University.
“Another theory is that as sake became mass produced, a lot of heavy labor and dangerous tasks were involved," he said. "So the job was seen as inappropriate for women.”
But the gradual breakdown of gender barriers, coupled with a shrinking workforce caused by Japan's fast-aging population, has created space for more women to work in sake production.
“It’s still mostly a male-dominated industry. But I think now people focus on whether someone has the passion to do it, regardless of gender,” Takahashi said.
She believes mechanization in the brewery is also helping to narrow the gender gap. At Koten, a crane lifts hundreds of kilograms of steamed rice in batches and places it onto a cooling conveyor, after which the rice is sucked through a hose and transported to a separate room dedicated to cultivating koji.
“In the past, all of this would have been done by hand,” Takahashi said. “With the help of machines, more tasks are accessible for women.”
Sake, or nihonshu, is made by fermenting steamed rice with koji mold, which converts starch into sugar. The ancient brewing technique was recognized under UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage earlier this month.
As a child, Takahashi was not allowed to enter her family-owned brewery. But when she turned 15, she was given a tour of the brewery for the first time and was captivated by the fermentation process.
“I saw it bubbling up. It was fascinating to learn that those bubbles were the work of microorganisms that you can’t even see,” said Takahashi, who couldn't drink alcohol at the time because she was underage. “It smelled really good. I thought it was amazing that this wonderful fragrant sake could be made from just rice and water. So I thought I’d like to try making it myself.”
She pursued a degree in fermentation science at the Tokyo University of Agriculture. After graduation, she decided to return home to become a master brewer. She trained for 10 years under the guidance of her predecessor, and at the age of 34 became a toji at her family brewery.
As the brewery enters the winter peak season, Takahashi oversees a team of seasonal workers and production ramps up. It’s labor-intensive work, hauling and turning large amounts of heavy steamed rice, and mixing thousands of liters (hundreds of gallons) of brew. The master brewer must have the knowledge and skill to carefully control optimal koji mold growth, which needs round-the-clock monitoring.
Despite the intensity, Takahashi manages to encourage camaraderie in the brewery, catching up with the team as they hand-mix koji rice side by side in a hot humid room.
“I was taught that the most important thing is to get along with your team,” Takahashi said. “A common saying is that if the atmosphere in the brewery is tense, the sake will turn out harsh, but if things are going well in the brewery, the sake will turn out smooth.”
The inclusion of women plays an important role in the survival of the Japanese sake industry, which has seen a steady decline since its peak in the 1970s.
Domestic alcoholic consumption has dropped, while many smaller breweries struggle to find new master brewers. According to the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, today’s total production volume is about a quarter of what it was 50 years ago.
To remain competitive, Koten is among many Japanese breweries trying to find a wider market both domestically and abroad.
“Our main product has always been dry sake, which local people continue to drink regularly," said Takahashi's older brother, Isao Takahashi, who is in charge of the business side of the family operation. "We’re now exploring making higher value sake as well.”
He supports his sister's experiments –- every year she creates a limited-edition series, Mie Special, that's meant to branch out from their signature dry product.
“My sister would say she wants to try to make low alcohol content, or she wants to try new yeasts -– all kinds of new techniques are coming in through her,” he said. “I want my sister to make the sake she wants, and I want to do my best to sell it.”
Source:
https://japantoday.com/category/national/once-taboo-more-japanese-women-are-brewing-sake
VII. Not paying any dating expenses at all' listed as domestic violence by Japanese gov't agency (12/17/24)
“These are all violence” states a chart on the website which contains four categories. Examples for “psychological violence” include yelling, disrespecting, or ignoring a romantic partner. “Physical violence,” obviously, covers things like punching, hair-pulling, and throwing objects with the intent to harm. The section for “sexual violence” lists scenarios such as coerced intercourse, refusal to cooperate with birth control methods, and forcing a partner to view pornography. Finally, “economic violence” is defined as actions such as using a partner’s money without their permission, or borrowing money but refusing to pay it back.
However, one example of economic violence that the Gender Equality Bureau lists is raising eyebrows and questions online in Japan right now: “Not paying any dating expenses at all.”
While the chart itself doesn’t make any mention of gender, slightly farther down on the same page the Gender Equality Bureau cites statistics that “One in five women has been the victim [of domestic violence] from a romantic partner,” which could give one the impression that the chart is implying that men who don’t pay for dates are perpetrating domestic violence. On the other hand, recent Japanese Twitter reactions such as the ones below show that the chart could also be interpreted as saying that it’s domestic violence for a woman to have a guy she goes out with pay for everything.
“Wait, so does this mean that all woman who say ‘You’re the guy, so you should pay for everything?’ are domestic abusers?”
“There really are a lot of women committing acts of domestic violence then, aren’t there?”
“I know you don’t want to be thought of as a domestic abuser by the Cabinet Office, so please pay half the bill.”
“Does this mean that a girl saying ‘You’re the guy, so you’re supposed to pay for everything’ is the same as a guy saying ‘If you agreed to go on a date, that means you agreed to go to a hotel’?”
The chart itself has actually been on the agency’s website since March of 2018, but this is the second time this year for this particular Gender Equality Bureau example of domestic violence to cause a stir, following another uptick in attention back in the spring. At that time, a representative for the bureau spoke with media outlet J-Cast News to clarify the organization’s position, saying:
“Both men and women can be victims of this kind of violence. Someone not paying for a date doesn’t immediately qualify as domestic violence. Unilaterally forcing the other person to pay is what can be thought of as domestic violence. So depending on the relationship between the two people, it’s a case-by-case sort of situation.”
The representative added “If both sides are OK with it [one person not paying], it’s not domestic violence.” The representative also pointed out that the bureau’s mage of economic violence does include such retroactive financial coercion as “If we’re going to break up, then you have to pay me back for the expensive sushi restaurant I treated you at!”
So in the end, cheapness alone isn’t enough to make someone an abuser in the eyes of the Gender Equality Bureau, and the litmus test isn’t so much an unwillingness to open one’s own wallet as it is trying to force someone else to open theirs. With the chart’s current phrasing having already caused some confusion multiple times, though, it seems like a rewrite of that part might be in order.
Source:
https://japantoday.com/category/national/'not-paying-any-dating-expenses-at-all'-listed-as-domestic-violence-by-japanese-government-agency
VIII. Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan (1/3/25)
But with restrictions implemented during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a ban on serving alcohol at restaurants, retailers weren’t buying their sake, causing his business to suffer.
“So then we realized that we had to directly approach customers,” said Sasaki. “We decided to have them come to us and build a steady fan base.”
Now Sasaki, 54, has a new game plan — to make his sake production more interpersonal and international.
Taking advantage of the fact that his brewery is located just north of Nijo Castle in the city of Kyoto — where millions come to visit each year — Sasaki is looking to attract tourists from across the globe to come see for themselves the art of sake brewing that his family has honed over generations for over a century.
“It was something I always wanted to do,” laughs Sasaki, recounting his college years when he belonged to a tourism club, which sparked his passion for the travel industry. “We are trying to make the most of our location, and through our brewery tours, we are hoping to increase traffic to nearby areas to revitalize the community.”
Although Sasaki’s effort is localized and intended to help out his immediate community, it is also emblematic of a large-scale effort across the entire sake industry in recent years.
Japanese sake has gone through a tough time as domestic consumption continues to fall, hit especially hard by the pandemic, which was almost tantamount to a Prohibition of the 21st century. But all hope is not lost, as international interest in the traditional Japanese beverage is on the rise, with the art of sake brewing even recognized by UNESCO, which put it on its intangible heritage list in December for its high level of technique.
Brewers across Japan are attempting to cash in on this opportunity by making use of the art and traditions that their ancestors have protected for centuries to appeal to a new audience and revitalize their community through tourism.
The fall and rise of sake
For a while, the future had seemed pretty bleak for the Japanese sake industry.
“Sake consumption peaked in 1973, and it's been dropping ever since. It's now less than one third of what it was at its peak,” said John Gauntner, a sake expert who has been on the front line of spreading sake around the world since 1994.
Gauntner pointed out that the drop has mostly been due to the decline in the consumption of regular-grade sake, rather than the premium grades. Nonetheless, it’s no secret that alcohol consumption is on the decline across the board in Japan.
According to the most recent data collected by the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, the volume of domestic shipments, which peaked at 1.7 billion liters in 1973, had dropped to 390 million liters in 2023. Even the number of sake breweries around the nation has reduced significantly.
But while domestic consumption continues to dwindle, overseas interest and consumption of sake has been on the rise. Recent data from the national tax agency shows that the export value of sake was ¥47.5 billion ($302 million) and ¥41 billion in 2022 and 2023, respectively, a significant jump from 2014 when it was only ¥11.5 billion. And with more restaurants and stores outside of Japan beginning to offer sake, more drinkers get exposed to its appeal — perhaps even coming to drink it regularly.
“People (abroad) are starting to really become genuinely and deeply interested in sake and that's huge,” said Gauntner. “And (when those people) come to Japan, they definitely want to visit a brewery or something.”
Indeed, according to a 2019 survey conducted by the tourism agency that asked overseas travelers what they looked forward to the most before visiting Japan, drinking sake was the sixth-most-popular response. It has risen even further since then, becoming fifth in 2023.
“When people who enjoyed sake at a Japanese restaurant abroad come to Japan (and try it here), it tastes even better paired with the local delicacies from the region,” said Masahiro Sugino, the deputy director of the tourism promotion division at the Japan Travel and Tourism Association. “And this also works the other way around — when they drink really good sake in Japan, they return to their home country and continue to seek it out.”
Building sake tourism
Sugino heads the Japan Sake Brewery Tourism Promotion Council, an organization that was started in 2016 to incorporate breweries into tourism in Japan, similar to what Sasaki has set out to do in Kyoto.
There are currently 44 organizations that are part of the group, including breweries such as Sasaki Shuzo, but also government organizations including the Cabinet Office, as well as travel agencies and transportation companies. The council’s goal is to promote collaboration among these organizations to set up a system to help draw tourists to breweries across the nation.
With both the sake breweries and the tourism industry suffering from Japan's dwindling population, the group’s goal is to revitalize local communities and help with the ongoing labor shortage.
“The essence of Japan is in the regional areas, and it is important to make local culture known, especially to people from overseas," said Sugino. "The charm of sake breweries is that they're different from one region to another given that the natural conditions of the area determine the taste."
By promoting sake breweries to overseas travelers and getting them to travel to rural areas they otherwise might not visit, Sugino says the council hopes to relieve the issue of overtourism.
Each brewery takes a different approach to incorporating the tourism element.
Sasaki’s company in Kyoto conducts tours all year round for visitors who sign up either through group trips organized by tourism companies such as JTB or directly at the company's website. Employees guide visitors around the actual factory where sake is made, and give them an explanation of the art and techniques that go into the process.
The tour ends off with a sake tasting session and depending on the chosen tier — ranging from around ¥3,000 to ¥10,000 — visitors might get to sample higher-quality sake and an accompanying meal.
Visitor numbers have increased every year since Sasaki incorporated the tour at his company around three years ago. Beginning with around 1,300 visitors in 2022, the number rose to 2,972 in 2023 and as of September this year, some 3,750 visitors had already taken the tour.
The challenge
However, success such as Sasaki's is easier said than done, as organizing tours of sake breweries presents several challenges.
For one, breweries are often located in old buildings that have been around for centuries, and as such, might not be designed to take in visitors. They can be cramped and wet, and although it is possible to build one just for the same of tourism — as Sasaki did — it requires a level of investment that not all brewers can afford.
In addition, there is a risk of contamination from tourists, since sake is a refined, sensitive product that could be easily affected by germs that visitors would inevitably bring in. Again, while not insurmountable, preventive measures require significant investment.
Finally, unlike Sasaki Shuzo, many of the breweries are located in rural areas that are hard for visitors to get to. Considering such tours usually involve some drinking, visitors should not be driving themselves there.
This can be especially challenging for overseas visitors who might not be familiar with local public transportation options, which in rural areas, often mean just a handful of buses per day.
Sugino’s council is helping travel companies and breweries plan group tours, and there are also more unique solutions such as that of Bandai Taxi in Niigata Prefecture, which is training taxi drivers to be knowledgeable about sake so that they can drive visitors to various breweries and double up as tour guides.
Considering these challenges, Gauntner said that organizing tours might be worth the investment for some but not for others.
“If you've got a lot of tourist traffic ... for some it's going to be worth it, but if you're in the middle of nowhere, half an hour by car from anywhere, you might make the best sake in the world but it's probably not worth it for them to retool,” he said. “They've got to have the willingness and the personalities to do it.”
When it's worth it
For sake brewer Shigeki Tonoike, all the trouble is worth it.
Although his company, Tonoike Sake Brewery, is located in the town of Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture — around 100 kilometers, or about a two-hour drive, from Tokyo — the historical relevance of the town made it important for Tonoike to play a part in bringing more people to the region.
The town — which is known for its Mashiko ware, a style of pottery with a history of over 160 years — had always had a steady flow of mainly domestic tourists. And Tonoike, who has also served as the head of the town's tourism association for 12 years, is passionate about pushing the town’s potential further and reaching a global audience.
“At a chaotic time like this when so many things are going on around the world, I want people to be able to come to the brewery to relax and experience something out of the ordinary,” he said.
Although his company was early on the bandwagon and had been gearing up its brewery toward tourism since 1988, he is continuing to explore what his brewery can do to get more people to enjoy the town of Mashiko as a whole. This includes opening up cafes next to the brewery that serve products using its sake, as well as expanding its product line to include cosmetics.
He continues to work with travel agencies to plan travel packages to make the town accessible, as well as organize smaller group trips with a driver who also acts as a guide.
“With tourism as the entry point, we can show beyond how a grand prix-winning sake might taste good," said Tonoike. "We can also have people visit the farmers that grow the strawberries and vegetables, or the pottery artists that make the cups they drink sake from, and share the things that can only be enjoyed in Mashiko.
“It’s not only about drinking the sake, but also getting to know about the history of the people and the culture behind it.”
Source:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2025/01/03/travel/sake-breweries-tourism/
