Japan's burgeoning whisky business is driving rice farmer Hiroshi Tsubouchi to hit the booze.
With domestic rice consumption sliding, Tsubouchi, 36, says he is getting on the whisky bandwagon — or, at least, switching to the barley used to make it. With Japanese whiskies ranking among the best — and most expensive — in the world, the profits of the local distillery industry are beginning to flow to the country's farmers.
Tsubouchi will reap his first crop next month, joining a dozen farmers in central Japan testing barley's potential to bolster incomes and help feed the nation's malt-hungry spirit-makers.