Bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau, to be unsealed worldwide Thursday, began to arrive at Narita and Kansai airports early Saturday, awaited by fans as well as label collectors after the 2000 vintage.
Customs officers at Narita, Japan's busiest international airport, began to examine some of the estimated 2.7 million 750-ml bottles of the wine that are to be imported into Japan from the Beaujolais region, near Lyon in southwestern France.
The wine, which is traditionally released for consumption on the third Thursday of November, will cost about 2,000 yen per bottle, the same as last year, importers said.