TOKYO – Japan’s sake breweries are staring down the threat of declining demand at home as consumer preferences shift to other alcoholic beverages like beer and wine – if they are still drinking at all, with teetotalism rising among a health-conscious population.
The term Japanese “sake” in English often refers to the alcoholic beverage brewed from fermented rice, which is also known as nihonshu or seishu in Japanese. It is in this environment that some sake breweries are trying to create new value by resurrecting the long-lost tradition of maturing sake – “ageing like fine sake” may well be the new “ageing like fine wine”.
Sake and wine differ in how they are produced – the former from rice and the latter from grapes – but both are sophisticated fermented alcoholic beverages that sommeliers and restaurateurs say can vastly elevate the fine dining experience. This dipped slightly to 29,000 kilolitres worth 41.1 billion yen in 2023, as the post-pandemic surge in demand tapered off, although stakeholders expect the export market to grow even further as more foreigners are exposed to Japanese sake amid the tourism boom.
“Japanese sake accounts for only 0.2 per cent of the total alcoholic beverage consumption in the US, and we want to take on the challenge of growing its share.” Now, in setting its sights on the US, it has invested 8.5 billion yen into the Hyde Park brewery, which has an annual capacity of up to 140,000 cases of Dassai Blue sake, at nine litres a case.
While he admits to challenges at the start, such as having to adjust to different levels of water hardness, he adds: “Instead of just trying to recreate the taste and aroma of Dassai that we make in Yamaguchi, we want to create the best possible sake in a new environment that can surpass the original Dassai.”
At the same time, ageing sake required both time and space, which were luxuries that breweries and distilleries did not have amid the pressure to grow revenues to pay off taxes. “When you hear about vintage wine or mature whiskey, the image is that it must be very expensive,” says Takumi Sosei president Akihiko Yasumura. “But there is almost no market for aged sake in Japan.”For a long time, the breweries that have persisted to produce vintage sake have gone at it virtually alone. Mr Yasumura hopes that having strength in numbers can help expand sales channels.