Photo/Illutration The Asahi Shimbun

There’s nothing quite like customer loyalty to help businesses through hard times, and this was never more true than for Shochu distillers reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drinkers, of course, are still spending, but not like before.

Imbibing at home instead of bars, restaurants and other boozy venues is seen as a safer bet nowadays rather than mixing with strangers in crowded places and the inherent risk of catching the novel coronavirus.

Now that winter is here, distillers are counting on loyal customers to continue mixing their shochu with hot water to warm themselves on chilly evenings while thumbing through manga comics at home.

Manga mania, it seems, is key to locking in sales.

A survey in August on sales of the top 50 shochu makers nationwide found that their total turnover in 2020 fell 3.9 percent year on year to 252 billion yen ($2.22 billion). It marked a sharp 18.5-percent drop from the peak period in 2008 and constituted an all-time low since such records were first kept in 2005. The survey was undertaken by the Fukuoka branch of Teikoku Databank Ltd.

Eighty percent of the distillers reported revenue drops compared with the previous year. Businesses whose ratios of shochu proceeds to total sales fluctuated were excluded from the study.

However, some major distillers are enjoying brisk sales by pitching boxed shochu products.

Kirishima Shuzo Co., based in Miyazaki Prefecture and which ranked as the nation’s largest shochu producer for nine years in a row, marketed three kinds of boxed shochu, including Kuro Kirishima Ex, between 2019 and 2020.

Although shipments of shochu in glass bottles for use in restaurants and eateries fell sharply, boxed products offset the losses, according to Kirishima Shuzo representatives.

Sanwa Shurui Co., based in Oita Prefecture and famous for its Iichiko brand, was also able to maintain sales at around the same level as the previous year due to boxed shipments.

“Consumers tend to choose large quantity and high-profile products they are familiar with, rather than experimenting with new ones, when drinking at home,” an official of Teikoku Databank noted.

Some smaller distillers are also doing well by trying novel promotional tactics.

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A special shochu produced by Mitsutake Co. that is distilled from sweet potatoes features the “Fist of the North Star” manga series. (Provided by Mitsutake Co.)

Mitsutake Co. in Saga Prefecture saw its revenue increase 3.4 percent after it introduced its special Makai eno Izanai series featuring comic characters from the hit “Fist of the North Star” manga series, which first went on sale in 2019.

The “Fist of the North Star” brand won the hearts of middle-aged men who love both the manga and shochu, with total sales topping 1 million bottles.

The collaboratively designed shochu distilled from sweet potatoes is named after the manga series’ noted line “you are already dead,” and a 1,800-milliliter bottle carries a price tag of 3,200 yen before tax.

Five styles are featured starring protagonists such as Kenshiro and Raoh under the theme of “seikimatsu kyuseishu densetsu” (legend of the end-of-century alcoholic savior) in a parody of the phrase “legend of the legend of the end-of-century savior” pronounced in the same way in Japanese but written differently.

“The jointly developed products proved to be a hit in spite of the novel coronavirus crisis,” said Kunihiro Mitsutake, a director at the distiller.

Mitsutake is currently gearing up to release new products under the manga umbrella.

Aficionados contend that shochu has made waves on three occasions in Japan.

A TV commercial to promote the Satsuma Shiranami brand led to broad acceptance of enjoying the beverage with hot water during the 1970s. Iichiko and other products using barley became popular in the 1980s, while potato-based Kuro Kirishima shochu became much sought after in the early 2000s.

As the shochu market size is on the decline due to consumers’ diversifying preferences, distillers are now gearing up to create the next boom after what has been “a long winter period.”

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