Photo/Illutration Senichi Kato, left, treats ingredients with another staff member in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, on Nov. 25. (Akifumi Nagahashi)

NIIGATA—Young brewers are trying to breathe fresh air into the struggling local sake industry here that once made waves across the nation.

Sake sales are on a downward trend across the nation, even in Niigata Prefecture, which is famed for its tasty rice.

Hiro Hasegawa, 32, president of the Niigata Hasegawaya sake retailer in Niigata’s Nishikan Ward, said local brewers are so alarmed by the recent crisis that they are shifting away from traditional practices.

“Young makers at certain breweries are taking on challenges in hopes of improving their products every year,” said Hasegawa, who previously worked at a liquor store in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Senichi Kato, a former brokerage employee, became president of Tenryohai Brewery in 2018 through a merger and acquisition.

His Utashiro sake line, slightly sweet and mildly sour, was released the following year from the brewery in Sado, Niigata Prefecture.

Utashiro boasts an attractive aroma and has a taste quite different from traditional local sake with the noted “tanrei karakuchi” (clean and dry) flavor.

Distilled alcohol has traditionally been added to Niigata Prefecture sake to complete the brewing process. But Kato, 29, who hails from Chiba Prefecture, believed that method blurs the rice’s savor.

Kato mentioned the days when tourists would pick up bottles of sake brewed on Sado island just because of the well-known brand name.

He said those days are long gone.

“We will be realizing a top-level sake quality across Japan from here on out,” Kato said. “Some younger generation brewers full of vitality are emerging in Niigata Prefecture. I want to revitalize the business with our generation.”

Using a subsidy program and a crowdfunding drive to raise money, Kato replaced the aged machinery at his brewery and invested tens of millions of yen (hundreds of thousands of dollars) annually.

Kato last year installed dedicated equipment to pour more energy into preparing “koji” mold because the ingredient significantly affects the quality of finished sake.

COLLABORATION WITH APPAREL FIRM

Yuta Abe, 34, in 2014 returned to the Abe Shuzo brewery, which was founded in 1804, after working for restaurant information website Gurunavi.

As the sixth leader of the family business in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, Abe saw annual production fall to 4,000 1.8-liter bottles that year.

In 2015, with the brewery teetering on bankruptcy, Yuta released a new line called Abe.

Featuring no distilled alcohol, the carefully adjusted brew is characterized by the rich savor and clear sourness of the rice.

Yuta said Abe’s attraction is that it recreates a range of aromas, from clean to mellow flavors, exclusively with rice, koji and water.

Yuta pitched the Abe brand in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and a major liquor store in the capital is now handling the product.

“I want to make more consumers try Japanese sake via avant-garde brewing approaches,” he said.

Abe Shuzo has teamed up with United Arrows Ltd., a leading apparel company popular among young people, to develop a “kijoshu” bottle brewed from sake instead of water.

The specialty is billed as having a fruity flavor and sweetness.

SHIFT AWAY FROM SAKE

20230422-brewer-G

Sake breweries are facing a harsh situation throughout Japan. Young drinkers are choosing sake less often from among the wide variety of alcoholic beverages marketed these days.

National Tax Agency statistics show that domestic sake shipments in fiscal 2020 fell to 410,000 kiloliters, 20 percent of the peak in fiscal 1973.

According to the Niigata Sake Brewers Association, the shipment figure for bottles produced in the prefecture has been declining since topping 80,000 kiloliters in 1996.

With consumption on the rebound following eased COVID-19 regulations, Niigata Prefecture’s domestic shipments totaled 33,406 kiloliters in 2022, marking its first year-on-year increase in eight years.

But the increase was only 1.2 percent, and the total was less than half of the level in the peak period.

Related News