Hoppy, a sparkling low-alcohol beverage usually mixed with "shochu" distilled spirits, debuted in 1948 and became popular mainly in and around Tokyo as a cheap alternative to beer after the war.

However, as beer became more widely affordable amid the high economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s, Hoppy — which had gotten a tacky image as a drink for working-class men — fell out of favor and many pubs pulled it from their menus.

Now the carbonated malt and hops concoction is making a comeback among young people as a healthy alcoholic drink, thanks to the efforts of Mina Ishiwatari, executive vice president of Hoppy Beverage Co. and granddaughter of the company's founder.

Hoppy Beverage, the only manufacturer of the drink, has seen annual sales more than double to ¥2.33 billion in the five years to 2006. The company sells other drinks, but roughly 80 percent of its revenues come from Hoppy.

Since joining Tokyo-based Hoppy Beverage in 1997 at age 29 as a rank-and-file employee, Ishiwatari has worked hard to improve Hoppy's tarnished image and change its outdated profile.

"It was a turbulent decade of eliminating evils from the company and rebuilding a new organization from scratch," she said in a recent interview.

From the beginning, the 39-year-old Ishiwatari was confronted with a number of hardships, mainly stemming from resistance by the company's old guard.

"I was desperate to get rid of Hoppy's unfashionable, dull and outdated image," she said.

Ishiwatari soon realized the tainted image was a reflection of the firm's cozy structure.

"The company has been in existence for nearly 100 years, which means that I also inherited its negative legacy from the last century," she said.

The corporate history of Hoppy Beverage dates back to 1910, when Ishiwatari's grandfather, Hide Ishiwatari, began producing and selling soda pop. In 1948, he developed the original recipe for Hoppy, which is made mostly with water, hops and malt in a process similar to making beer.

The most popular way to drink Hoppy, which has remained unchanged to this day, is to mix it chilled with cold shochu in a proportion of five to one in a chilled glass.

While it may appear natural for the only child of a second-generation president to take over the family business, Ishiwatari initially was not interested in following in the footsteps of her father, company President Koichi Ishiwatari.

"I was instead interested in marrying someone who would be fit to succeed my father as president," she said with a wry smile.

Fresh out of college, Ishiwatari joined Nisshin Flour Milling Co. and quit the company after marrying a man three years later.

But their marriage lasted only six months because she realized she was not the kind of person willing to be a homemaker. After the divorce, she found temporary work at an advertising agency.

It was after a round of market deregulation in 1995 that Hoppy Beverage was granted a government license to make beer. After that, her interest in her father's business started brewing.

"The entrance into the beer business made me think that Hoppy Beverage was starting something new," she said.

But the firm's deep-rooted culture exceeded her worst expectations.

At the time, almost all of the company's 30 employees were men in their 50s, most of them family relatives loath to ruin the cozy climate that had been established with Ishiwatari's father.

"I tried to take a new marketing approach to change the image of Hoppy . . . but no one would listen to me," she recalled.

Completely isolated from the other employees, Ishiwatari set her eyes on the potential of the Internet, something that no one else in the company seemed aware of but her.

Key events in Ishiwatari's life

1968 — Born in Minato Ward, Tokyo, as the only child of Koichi Ishiwatari, president of Hoppy Beverage Co.


1990 — Graduates from Rikkyo University, faculty of literature.


1990 — Joins Nisshin Flour Milling Co. as a clerical worker in the personnel department, where she gains experience recruiting.


1993 — Joins an advertising agency as a temporary worker and learns about branding.


1997 — Starts working at Hoppy Beverage.


1999 — Studies at a vocational school in central Tokyo to learn how to put up Web sites. Launches Hoppy's Web site and publishes her diary online to help spread the name of the beverage.


2003 — Becomes executive vice president of Hoppy Beverage.


She went to a vocational school to study how to use the Web for business and launched the Hoppy site ( www.hoppy-happy.com ) in 1999 with the hope of promoting Hoppy and selling it online.

"We had no money to spare for advertising, so I also uploaded the information to make it easier for people to find where to buy Hoppy and began writing an open diary on the Internet," Ishiwatari said.

Her patience eventually paid off. The diary attracted media attention a few years later and her efforts began receiving coverage.

Hoppy also got a boost from growing demand for healthy food, attracting the attention of health-conscious people.

A bottle of Hoppy, which contains only 0.8 percent alcohol, sells for ¥100 to ¥120. The drink is touted as low in calories and sugar and devoid of purines, a natural substance in anchovies, beer and many other foods that is considered the chief cause of gout.

In addition, Hoppy's revival has been helped by the recent boom in nostalgic products reminiscent of the good old days of the Showa era.

But the most important transition was the internal change in the company, Ishiwatari said.

"This may only apply to small and medium-size firms, but what determines a company's business performance" is the employees' mind-set, she said.

Her father, who patiently watched his daughter's struggle and growth, promoted her to vice president in 2003 and allowed her to carry out reforms as she liked. Ishiwatari destroyed Hoppy's cozy corporate culture and the older employees who were opposed to her radical approach left.

Almost all of Hoppy Beverage's 43 employees were hired after Ishiwatari came on board, including seven new graduates who entered this year.

Despite being a radical reformer, Ishiwatari is down to earth when it comes to talking about the future of Hoppy and the company.

"Hoppy's main market is Tokyo and Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures. We do not intend to expand it throughout the country nor do we plan to expand into the global market," she said, citing the company's limited manpower and resources.

Ishiwatari said she instead intends to go step by step to establish the brand within its existing market.

"Nowadays, you can buy anything wherever you go. The same applies to food and drink," she said. "There should be a drink that has its roots in Tokyo and is only available here. Hoppy can grow as part of Tokyo's food culture."

In this occasional series, we interview entrepreneurs whose spirit may hold the key to a more competitive Japan.