Trading house Mitsui & Co. said Thursday it has tied up with Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., a leading entertainment production group, to produce and sell "shochu" distilled spirits.
The companies will make new shochu using the skills of traditional distilleries in Kyushu, and the process will be broadcast on TV programs featuring celebrities signed with Yoshimoto Kogyo, Mitsui said.
"We aim to create new shochu together with TV viewers," a spokeswoman at Mitsui said. "We will ask viewers for their opinions on names for the products and their packaging."
The companies plan to launch a new shochu Friday called Getchu, developed through a series of late-night TV programs broadcast in October and November by the Osaka-based Mainichi Broadcasting System Inc.
Getchu, made at a distillery in the town of Kitago, Miyazaki Prefecture, has a 25 percent alcohol content and is aimed at women in their 20s and 30s, the companies said.
Priced at 2,500 yen for a 720-ml bottle, it will be sold at department stores and liquor shops nationwide, they said.
Next year, Mitsui and Yoshimoto Kogyo plan to create a new shochu through TV programs to be broadcast by Fukuoka-based Television Nishinippon Corp. from January to March.
The shochu will be made at a distillery in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, and will be targeted at urbanites in their 20s and 30s, the companies said.
In 1999, Mitsui started creating brands for little-known shochu made in Kyushu distilleries and marketing them nationwide. It currently sells 31 types of such shochu.