NIIGATA -- Motoaki Isono, the 73-year-old owner of a tavern called Suzuden in Tokyo's Minato Ward, said the name Niigata no longer works magic in alluring serious sake drinkers.

Suzuden keeps a variety of locally brewed sake for its clientele -- mostly office workers who stop by for a drink or two on their way home from work.

During the heyday of the bubble economy, tipplers prized dry sake brewed in Niigata. A 1.8-liter bottle bearing a Niigata label could sell for several thousand yen at bars in Tokyo's Ginza district.