Foreign diplomats in Japan have toured a sake brewery near Tokyo to study how the beverage is made in a project the government and the sake industry hope will promote the traditional rice wine overseas.
The National Tax Agency, which co-hosted the project with the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, aims to boost promotion of sake and other Japanese-made alcoholic beverages abroad this year in the run-up to the Tokyo Games.
In the tour at Iinuma Honke Co.'s brewery in Chiba Prefecture on Feb. 13, some of the 12 diplomats and their family members from the United States, India, South Korea, Hungary and Brazil experienced mixing moromi — a fermenting mixture — using a wooden rod under the guidance of chief brewer Koichi Kawaguchi.