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September 16, 2025
 

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SAKE

Haruhiko Oyama, a descendant of the Yamatohana Jozo brewery's founder, talks about the family business at the brewer’s original site, which is now used as a restaurant and rental venue.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Sep 8, 2025
Sake brewing in Hiroshima felt the pinch of wartime economic controls
During World War II, the government pushed breweries into mergers or closures to redirect resources toward munitions.
Shinji Mizutani opened Tanikoretani in August 2024, after converting a dilapidated shophouse in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa into a retro-look "izakaya" tavern.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 24, 2025
Behind Tanikoretani’s quiet facade, a lively world of sake-fueled food
A chance encounter with a two-story rental space led Shinji Mizutani to set up a vibrant tavern in Tokyo’s Kiyosumi-Shirakawa neighborhood.
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 22, 2025
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Yellowish and high in acidity, German sake won't please the purists, but open-minded consumers, especially wine drinkers, may find something appealing.
After establishing Lagoon Brewery in 2021, Yosuke Tanaka began making export-only "nihonshu" (Japanese sake) and later, "craft sake," a new genre of sake that isn't bound by the rules of traditional sakemaking.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 25, 2025
Brewed from rice, water and tomatoes: The growth of ‘craft sake’
Hampered yet inspired by the strict regulations for new brewers, a growing breed of sake producers are making the beverage on their own creative terms.
Bolstered by a strong turnout last year, Raw Wine Tokyo, a natural wine festival, is returning to quench the thirst of natural wine lovers.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 9, 2025
The world’s biggest natural wine festival returns to Tokyo
After impressing the city’s wine buffs last year, Raw Wine is back with more than 80 natural wine producers from around the world.
With a heady mix of sake, food and live music, this year's Craft Sake Week is drawing the crowds.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 24, 2025
Craft Sake Week is back with its usual brand of cool
The annual Roppongi Hills festival is banking on a combination of top sips, delicious bites and party vibes to spread the gospel of Japan’s signature tipple.
Japanese Ambassador to India Keiichi Ono (right) and others during the "Miss Sake India" event in New Delhi.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2025
'Miss Sake India' contest held in New Delhi to promote the Japanese drink
The winner, Aakansha, who works in the marketing industry, said she was very excited to be chosen for the one-year role of promoting sake.
Bottles of Hakkaisan-brand sake for export
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2025
U.S. tariffs overshadow Japan's agriculture and food exports
Japanese goods need to be sold by "emphasizing that there are no alternatives" to them, said Kazuhito Yamashita, senior researcher at the Canon Institute for Global Strategies.
After getting her career started in Japan, Courney Kaplan has become one of Los Angeles' leading sake evangelists from her base at Ototo.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Apr 6, 2025
In Los Angeles, Courtney Kaplan says sake is having a moment
Los Angeles has no shortage of Japanese restaurants, but Ototo makes the country's national drink an easy sip.
Brooklyn Kura's Catskills, a "junmai daiginjō" (sake with rice polished down to at least 50%), is made with water from the New York region of the same name.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 28, 2025
New York's Brooklyn Kura becomes first U.S. sake exporter to Japan
The brewer’s initial exports are “relatively small,” but it hopes drinkers in Japan are "open to trying" American-made sake.
Kazuki Morohashi showcases rice "kōji" at a Japanese sake fair held in Chongqing, China, in November.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2025
Data science helps sake break into wine-dominated market
To preserve the environment for sake production, some breweries are endeavoring to expand their sales channels overseas.
Together, Shinsuke Yamagai (right) and his younger brother, Ryota, have elevated the cuisine at Shintaku, putting it on the map as one of Niigata Prefecture’s premier gastronomic destinations.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Feb 9, 2025
Brothers’ local focus lifts Shintaku to Niigata’s highest rank
From the ashes of a devastating 2005 fire, Shinsuke and Ryota Yamagai have remade their family’s historic Niigata restaurant into a beacon of Japanese gastronomy.
Brian Hutto runs Craft Sake Shoten, a Yokohama shop he calls a hangout for 'real sake enthusiasts.'
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Feb 2, 2025
Sipping down the rabbit hole at Craft Sake Shoten
A chance encounter with sake evangelist John Gauntner led Brian Hutto to reinvent himself with sake as his new focus.
The koji room at Fukuwagura brewery in Mie Prefecture, where metals such as stainless steel, which are easy to manage for hygiene, are widely used
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 30, 2025
Japanese food makers step in to preserve sake breweries' legacy
The initiatives by food companies coincide with a growing recognition of traditional sake-making techniques.
Musashi Winery is known for its 'shōkōshi' wines.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 26, 2025
Where to begin when it comes to Japanese wine
Buying your first Japanese wine? Let your own palate lead the way.
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 16, 2025
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
Tokyo native Takuma Watanabe offers a formidable addition to New York’s pantheon of cocktail bars.
Tonoike Sake Brewery has been gearing their brewery toward tourism since the late 1980s, attempting to lure tourists to the town of Mashiko.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2025
Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan
While sake consumption has declined in Japan, breweries across the nation are taking advantage of a rise in overseas interest to promote themselves as tourist destinations.
A brewer stirs the mix for making sake at a brewery in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 3, 2025
Brooklyn brewers take on sake, America's new hip tipple
The ancient Japanese drink, which has been exported to the United States for at least a century, is being increasingly localized.
Employees of Takahashi Shouten working on the trial production of sake in New Delhi on Nov. 14.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 17, 2024
Japanese sake brewery to make foray into Indian market
Takahashi Shouten, based in the city of Yame in Fukuoka Prefecture, launched a subsidiary in India in February.
Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Dec 16, 2024
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
A year after disaster devastated the region, brewers have turned to nationwide partnerships and new technologies to sustain their culture.
SDF spots China’s biggest aircraft carrier for first time
The Fujian aircraft carrier is seen in Shanghai in May 2024 as it leaves for its first sea trial.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Final weeks of World Expo in Osaka likely to see large crowds
With one month left to go, crowds are expected to swell at the World Expo in Osaka during its final weeks.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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